Carrington Power Station is a
combined cycle gas turbine
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many ...
, which was completed in Autumn 2016 and began commercial operation on 18 September 2016.
It is located on the site of a former coal-fired power station, close to the villages of Carrington and Partington in the Greater Manchester Area and southwest of Manchester City Centre. The
Manchester Ship Canal and the
River Mersey
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...
run alongside the site, in
Trafford
Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
, in
North West England.
History - Coal-Fired Power Station
Background
The station's site, on the south-east bank of the point where the
River Mersey
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...
runs into the
Manchester Ship Canal, was acquired by
Manchester Corporation
Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three f ...
in 1916 as an alternative site for
Barton Power Station
Barton Power Station was a Fossil fuel power plant, coal-fired power station on the Bridgewater Canal in Trafford Park, near Eccles, Greater Manchester, Eccles, Lancashire, England.
History
The construction of the station began in 1920 and ope ...
, but was never developed. The construction of a coal-fired power station on the site did not occur until after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. The
Manchester Corporation Electricity Department began planning the station in 1947. Planning was continued by the
British Electricity Authority, following the
nationalisation of the industry in 1948. It was initially planned for the site to comprise two stations; an A station and a B station. Each station was to have a capacity of 240
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s (MW), a total capacity of 480 MW over the site, but only the A station was built.
Construction, design and specification
Because the station's site was surrounded by water on two sides, its
strata were variable and so all of the buildings' foundations were
piled. Approximately 7,850 piles were made, all of
reinforced concrete construction, with an average length of and with a load of 50 tonnes per pile. The station's main buildings consisted of a
turbine hall,
boiler house
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...
and a pair of
chimneys
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typ ...
. Other structures included
workshop
Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...
s,
storage areas, a
canteen
{{Primary sources, date=February 2007
Canteen is an Australian national support organisation for young people (aged 12–25) living with cancer; including cancer patients, their brothers and sisters, and young people with parents or primary carers ...
and
office block buildings. The approximate dimensions of the main buildings measured by . 10,300 tonnes of steel was used in the main buildings'
steel frame
Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...
, erection of which began in November 1949, and the construction of the superstructure beginning in December 1950. The steel frame was
clad with
brick, while
copings and
cills were made from
artificial stone. The station had
granolithic
Granolithic screed, also known as granolithic pavingEmmitt and Gorse, p. 566. and granolithic concrete,Harris, p. 470. is a type of construction material composed of cement and fine aggregate such as granite or other hard-wearing rock.Ingham, p. 13 ...
flooring, but the turbine hall and boiler room floors were
tile
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
d. The roofs were made from
reinforced concrete with
glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...
glazing. Two
elevator
An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They a ...
s were provided, to give access to all floors. The station's two chimneys were each high and of brick construction.
Ten million bricks were used in the construction of the station.
Commissioning of the station's first generating set took place in 1953. All of the station's generating sets were commissioned by 1956.
The station was officially opened by Sir William Walker on 20 July 1956. By then, the British Electricity Authority had become the
Central Electricity Authority
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) was a body that managed and operated the electricity supply industry in England and Wales between 1 April 1955 and 31 December 1957. The CEA replaced the earlier British Electricity Authority (BEA) as a r ...
.
This in turn became the
Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Janua ...
in 1957.
Operation
The station generated electricity using four 60 megawatt (MW)
Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...
turbo-alternator
An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Go ...
s, giving the station a total generating capacity of 240 MW. Steam for the generators was provided by seven boilers. Boilers no. 1 to 4 were produced by
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
, and boilers no. 5 to 7 by
John Brown Land Boilers. The latter were the first made by this company to be commissioned by the Central Electricity Authority.
The boilers had a rated output of 45 kg/s; steam conditions were 62.06 bar and 482 °C.
Initially the station operated at
base load
The base load (also baseload) is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants, dispatchable generation, or by a collection of smaller intermittent e ...
, and maintained a good
load factor into the middle of its life.
The generating capacity and electricity output from Carrington power station is given in the following table.
The electricity output is demonstrated by the following graph.
Between 1984 and 1985 the station broke its own output records. In the final years of its operating life it retained a high availability, to meet the peaks of winter evening electricity demands.
After the United Kingdom's
electric supply industry was
privatised
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
in 1990, the station was operated by
PowerGen.
It continued generating electricity until it was closed in 1991, and was demolished several years later.
Current Gas-Fired Power Station
Background
A
gas-fired
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon di ...
Combined Cycle Gas Turbine
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many ...
has now been built, utilising the same site as the original coal-fired station. Bridestone Developments constructed the £500 million station, which is capable of generating 884MW of electricity (at approximately 58% efficiency); enough power to supply a million homes.
Irish utility company
ESB Group
The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ga, Bord Soláthair an Leictreachais) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company operating in the Republic of Ireland. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a ...
purchased an 85% stake in the project from Carlton Power in September 2008. The station is also a
combined heat and power plant
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
, capable of providing nearby businesses with steam, if they require a supply. Bridestone were granted planning permission to build the station by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in July 2008. This meant the plans were not subject to approval from
Trafford Council
Trafford Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and pr ...
. Its construction began in late 2009, providing 900 construction jobs. Fifty permanent jobs are provided by the current power station.
Construction, design and specification
Barge transport was used where possible for all heavy loads, such as the
gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
s. Shipments from global locations such as China, Indonesia, Germany, Poland and Spain navigated to Ellesmere port in Cheshire and eventually along the Manchester Ship Canal to the Carrington site. The trip from Ellesmere to Carrington was undertaken a total of 20 times. Across the 800 kilometres of waterways travelled, approx. 8,000 tonnes of equipment was transported. ESB claimed that this was 50% more efficient than road transport and that 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions were prevented as a result. Given the large workforce at the project, a ‘green travel plan’ was also implemented where workers were transported to and from the site via double-decker buses from satellite car parks. These measures reduced the impact of traffic on local residents. Due to the sustainable approaches adopted during construction of the station, the project was shortlisted for a UK corporate responsibility award in 2014.
The station is a Combined-Cycle Power Plant (CCPP), using natural gas to generate 884MW of electricity. The CCPP uses both a gas and a steam turbine together, to produce up to 50 percent more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple-cycle plant. The waste heat from the gas turbine is routed to the nearby steam turbine, which generates additional power. Carrington consists of two CCPP KA26-1 units. At operating design conditions, each CCPP unit generates 442.3 MW net output. The station generates enough power to meet the electricity needs of one million homes in the UK and began commercial operation on 18 September 2016.
In 2013,
Severfield plc contracted with the
Duro Felguera group to provide steelwork for the new Carrington Power Station. Duro Felguera's UK subsidiary refused to pay a December 2014 stage payment. Severfield obtained
adjudication
Adjudication is the legal process by which an arbiter or judge reviews evidence and argumentation, including legal reasoning set forth by opposing parties or litigants, to come to a decision which determines rights and obligations between the p ...
under the ''
Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its long title shows that it is a piece of omnibus legislation:
:''An Act to make provision for grants and other assistance for housing pur ...
'' for £2,470,231.97, and then sought
summary judgement
may refer to:
* Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences
* Epitome, a summary or miniature form
* Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a sho ...
from the
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...
to enforce payment for a reduced amount of £1,445,495.78.
Judge Smith
Christopher John Judge Smith (born 1 July 1948), is an English songwriter, author, composer and performer, and a founder member of progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Initially working under the name Chris Judge Smith, he has been kn ...
refused because part of the sum related to a power plant and was therefore excluded from the 1996 Act, and the adjudicator's jurisdiction. Duro Felguera argued it was in fact owed money by Severfield because of overpayments.
Severfield finally obtained a judgement in 2017 for £2,774,077.91 (or £1,760,480.27 up to 2014) but by then Duro Felguera UK Ltd had entered
liquidation and recovery was limited to what Duro Felguera in Spain could be obliged to pay under a
parent company guarantee A parent company guarantee (PCG) is a guarantee by a parent company of a contractor’s performance under its contract with its client, where the contractor is a subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned ...
for the period up to 2014.
The Power Train
Each power train includes an Alstom GT26 gas turbine, a horizontal triple-pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG), a TOPGAS hydrogen-cooled generator and an Alstom STF15C triple pressure reheat
steam turbine with axial exhaust and all other auxiliaries to operate the plant. The total combined power output of the two power trains is 884 MW.
The GT26B gas turbine burns a mixture of compressed air and gas. When this mixture is ignited, the products of combustion expand over the blades of the turbine which generates
torque
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
on the shaft. Each gas turbine contributes roughly 293 MW to the overall plant output. The thermal block of the GT26B gas turbine contains the
compressor, two combustion chambers, a high-pressure and a low-pressure turbine, inside a common outer housing. The main feature of the GT26 gas turbine is sequential combustion. The gas turbine incorporates two combustors that operate simultaneously and sequentially, providing higher thermal efficiencies with lower temperatures and emissions.
The Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG), is a
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
which is designed to use the heat from the exhaust gases of the gas turbine to create steam for the steam turbine. This increases the overall efficiency of each unit. The steam turbine adds approximately 161MW to the overall power output of each unit. There are 3 cylinders within the steam turbine; each generate a different amount of power.
References
External links
Carrington Power- Official website of new CCGT power station.
{{North West Power Stations
Coal-fired power stations in England
Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom
Power stations in North West England
Demolished buildings and structures in Greater Manchester