King's Lynn Power Station refers to a

combined cycle 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 ...

natural gas power station near

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, commissioned in 1997, and now owned by RWE, and to a coal fired power in King's Lynn in operation from 1899 to 1960. The CCGT station was mothballed on 1 April 2012. It can generate 325 MW of electricity and employed 40 people. The site was reopened on 19 November 2019.

History

Construction of this power station began in October 1994 and was completed and started producing electricity in December 1997. The owners of the plant, TXU sold the plant to

Centrica Centrica plc is a British  multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire, England. It is the largest supplier of gas to domestic customers in the United Kingdom, and one of the largest suppliers ...

in October 2001. The plant was mothballed on 1 April 2012 as older, less efficient, plants such as King's Lynn had become uneconomic due to high gas prices. In December 2019 RWE purchased the plant from Centrica. The plant joins the UK gas portfolio which is the largest and most efficient fleet in the UK.

Description

The

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 is located on Willows Business Park, Saddlebow, King's Lynn and uses gas from National Grid's National Transmission System.

Original Specification

The station was built with one single shaft 237 MW

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

V94.3 Gas driven Turbine with electrical generator running at 3,000 rpm. The terminal voltage is 21 kV. There is a vertical type triple pressure

heat recovery steam generator A heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) is a heat exchanger that recovers heat from a hot gas stream, such as a combustion turbine or other waste gas stream. It produces steam that can be used in a process (cogeneration) or used to drive a steam ...

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

Combustion Services Ltd. The plant has one

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

that is coupled to the generator via a self synchronizing

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...

. The plant was built with one air cooled condenser which compromises of 61 cooling modules of fins, tubes and fan arranged in four by four configuration, connected to the 132 kV electrical distribution system. The original output of the station was 325

MWe 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 in honor o ...

. The power station employs around forty-one staff.

Environmental performance

In 2006 it generated 900 GWh and emitted the following pollutants:- *Nitrogen oxides: 310,000 tonnes *Methane: 26,000 tonnes *Sulphur Dioxide <100,000 tonnes *Carbon Monoxide 13 tonnes *Carbon Dioxide 365,896 tonnes

King's Lynn B project

Centrica has an option to build about 1,000 MW of gas generation capacity near the present site, but has yet to decide if this will go ahead. In 2013 National Grid obtained consent to build a new 400 kV grid connection, but a decision on proceeding is awaited.

Coal fired power station

King’s Lynn power station also refers to a small 5 MW coal fired power station in Kettlewell Lane in the town centre which operated from 1899 to 1960. The King’s Lynn Corporation had been granted a Provisional Order under the Electricity Acts to supply electricity to the town in 1896. Supplies of electricity started on 19 August 1899. By 1921 the plant at the station comprised a 1 MW

plus two 200 kW and one 400 kW reciprocating engine generators. The station supplied 3-phase 50 Hz AC at 230 and 400 Volts, and 200 and 400 Volt DC. By 1959 the plant comprised one 2.5 MW, one 1.5 MW and one 1.25 MW turbo-alternator sets. Only alternating current was supplied. The station drew its cooling water from the River Gaywood. The electricity supplied by the station was: The power station was closed in 1959-60.

References

External links

Gas-fired power stations
Centrica Energy {{DEFAULTSORT:King's Lynn Power Station Buildings and structures in Norfolk Natural gas-fired power stations in England Power stations in the East of England King's Lynn