The Castle Peak Power Station () is the largest

coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts Nameplate capacity, capacity. They ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It is situated in Tap Shek Kok, Tuen Mun District, on the north shore of

Urmston Road Urmston Road ( Chinese: 龍鼓水道, literally 'Dragon Drum Channel', also named as 暗士頓水道) is a broad body of water between Lantau Island and Tuen Mun in Hong Kong. It forms an inshore passage between the northwest end of Victoria Har ...

. It was named after the nearby Castle Peak. The station consists of four 350 MW and four 677 MW generating units, with auxiliary facilities. It was commissioned in 1982 with its newest generation unit installed in 1990, currently one of the three power stations that CLP operates in Hong Kong. In 2007, Castle Peak burned 9 million tonnes of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

of which, according to CLP, 4.6 million tonnes was low-sulphur coal from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The power station has been undertaking a range of programmes to improve emission performance, including refurbishing burners to reduce emission of nitrogen oxide, SCR (Selective Catalyst Reduction) and BOFA (Boosted Over Fire Air) has been installed, and

Flue-gas desulfurization Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide () from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes such as waste incineration. Methods ...

for sulphur removal. This power station is a major contributor to non-motor-traffic pollution in Hong Kong.

History

The Castle Peak A Power Station was officially opened by Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

on 28 September 1982. The site was designed with provision for construction of a second "B" power station at a later date. It was decided to go ahead with the Castle Peak B Power Station in 1981. This was built by the Castle Peak Power Company, a joint venture between CLP and Esso. The first two (of four) units were inaugurated by

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

on 22 October 1986.

Ownership

The station is owned by Castle Peak Power Company (Capco) which also owns the Black Point Power Station and the

Penny's Bay Power Station Penny's Bay Power Station () is a gas turbine power station in Penny's Bay, Hong Kong. The HKD 1.1 billion power station was commissioned on 25 March 1992. The complex consists of three open cycle gas turbines in a rectangular turbine hall with ...

. Initially CLP held a 40% stake (60% held by

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

) in Capco. The total power generation capacity of the three power station amounts to 6,908 MW. On 19 November 2013, CLP Group and

China Southern Power Grid Company China Southern Power Grid Company Limited (CSG; ) is one of the two Chinese state-owned enterprises established in 2002 according to the precept to reform the power system promulgated by the State Council, the other being State Grid Corporatio ...

(CSG) announced its acquisition of Exxon's 60% stake in Capco for HK$24 billion. After the transaction, CLP holds a 70% stake while CSG holds the remaining 30% stake. The transaction was said to help CLP lower its emission to meet its target in 2020 by importing more renewable energy through CSG's grid. The transaction was completed on May 12, 2014.

Future plans

In 2020, CLP installed an additional 550 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) from

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

for the nearby gas-powered Black Point Power Station. A second turbine is expected to be completed by 2023. During which, Castle Peak A Power Station Station will be gradually decommissioned, while the B Power Station is expected to cease day-to-day operations by 2035. As of 2022, Unit A1 (350 MW) was reserved only for emergency use due to reaching the end of its asset life.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Castle Peak Power Station
Castle Peak Power Station
on CLP website Coal-fired power stations in Hong Kong Tuen Mun District

History

Ownership

Future plans

See also

References

External links