Little Barford Power Station

Little Barford Power Station
Little Barford Power Station
	Little Barford power station in 2023
Official name	Little Barford power station
Country	England
Location	Bedfordshire
Coordinates	52°12′16″N0°16′8″W / 52.20444°N 0.26889°W
Status	A & B decommissioned and demolished, C: operational
Commission date	A: 1941, B: 1959, CCGT: 1994
Decommission date	A: 1981 B: 1984
Owners	British Electricity Authority ; (1948–1955); Central Electricity Authority ; (1955–1957); Central Electricity Generating Board ; (1958–1990)
Operator	RWE Generation UK
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	A & B Coal, CCGT Natural gas
Tertiary fuel	Fuel oil
Chimneys	A & B 3
Cooling towers	A & B 2
Cooling source	A & B river water + cooling towers, river water + hybrid cooling towers
Combined cycle?	Yes
Power generation
Units operational	CCGT 2 total 727 MW
Make and model	General Electric Frame 9F gas turbines
Units decommissioned	A & B all decommissioned
Nameplate capacity	CCGT 727 MWe
Annual net output	A & B see graphs in text
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons
	[ edit on Wikidata]; grid reference TL185577

Last updated January 18, 2025

Little Barford Power Station is a combined cycle gas turbine power station in the village of Little Barford in Bedfordshire, England. It lies just south of the A428 St Neots bypass and east of the Wyboston Leisure Park. The River Great Ouse runs alongside. It was formerly the site of two coal-fired power stations, now demolished. The station is operated by RWE.

History

Little Barford CCGT power station was built on the site of two former coal-fired power stations opened in 1939 and 1959 that had a generating capacity of 126 and 127 MW.

Little Barford A

Little Barford A station was built and operated by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Electricity Company. It was authorised in June 1938 and commissioned in 1941. It had an installed capacity of 126 MW and comprised four 31.5 MW English Electric generators.^[2] The boilers — two International Combustion and two Stirling^[3] — burned pulverised coal and produced steam at a rate of 1,200,000 lb/hr (151.2 kg/s) at a pressure of 650 psi (45 bar) and 482 °C (900 °F).^[2] The station was adjacent to the East Coast Main Line railway, coal was delivered and ash was removed via sidings and a connection with the railway (at 49 miles & 69 chains from London Kings Cross).^[4] The siding was extant in 2008 but had been removed by 2016.^[5] In 1961, the oldest generating set was 20 years old (commissioned in 1941) and the thermal efficiency of the station was 22.63 per cent.^[6] Water for condensing was abstracted from the River Ouse and was supplemented with a cooling tower with a capacity of 2,500,000 imperial gallons (11,000 cubic metres) per hour.^[2]^[3]

The output in GWh over the period 1946-82 was as follows.^[2]^[6]^[3]^[7]^[8]

The A station was closed on 26 October 1981.^[9]

Little Barford B

Construction of Little Barford B station started in 1959 by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). It had an installed capacity of 127 MW and comprised two 63.5 MW C.A. Parsons generators. The Foster Wheeler boilers^[3] burned pulverised coal and produced steam at a rate of 1,100,000 lb/hr (138.6 kg/s) at a pressure of 900 psi (62 bar) and 482 °C (900 °F).^[2] Cooling was by cooling towers. In 1961, the oldest generating set was two years old (commissioned in 1959) and the thermal efficiency of the station was 28.96 per cent.^[6] The output in GWh over the period 1961-84 was as follows.^[2]^[6]^[7] The station had completely remote operation of the two 60 MW units. The automatic electronic boiler control system used online computers and process controllers, the first in the UK.^[10]

Demolition of both stations took place in 1989, an event covered by the children's TV programme Blue Peter . Two 60 metres (197 ft) and one 75 metres (246 ft) tall chimneys and two 55 metres (180 ft) high cooling towers were blown up.^[11]

The two Parsons turbo-alternators of the B station were shipped to Malta. One was recommissioned as Unit 8 at Marsa Power Station and remained in service until 15 February 2015.

Little Barford CCGT

Construction of the gas-fired station started in 1994, and it opened in 1996. The company that built it, Swindon-based National Power, became Innogy in August 2000. That company was bought by the German electricity company, Essen-based RWE in March 2002, and became RWE npower. The station is now owned and operated by RWE Generation UK.

In 2002, a 12 MWe electrical storage facility was built by Regenesys Technologies (previously owned by Innogy but bought by VRB Power Systems in October 2004) which uses polysulfide bromide flow batteries. However, the facility was never operated commercially due to engineering issues in scaling up the technology.^[12]

In 2019, the failure of the plant was partially responsible for a large scale nationwide power cut on the evening of 9 August, after lightning hit a transmission line.^[13]^[14]

The station was constructed as a turn-key project awarded to GEC Alsthom, with principal equipment supplied by various GEC Alstom divisions including the gas turbine, LP steam turbine, steam boilers, electrical generator and transformers. Civil engineering and building was sub-contracted to Henry Boot. The station underwent an upgrade in 2012.

Original specification

The site is a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station using natural gas. It originally had two General Electric Frame 9F gas turbine engines each producing 220 MWe. Each of these had a Stein Industry heat recovery steam generator which lead to one steam turbine produced by Alstom which produced 256 MWe.

Upgraded specification

In 2012, the plant was upgraded to General Electric Frame 9FA+e gas turbine engines each producing 241 MWe. They are still connected to the original heat recovery steam generator which led to the steam turbine produced by Alstom which now produces 265 MWe.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

Rye House Power Station is a 715 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station located near Rye House railway station in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

Drakelow Power Station refers to a series of three now decommissioned and demolished coal-fired power stations located 2.4 mi (3.9 km) south of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England, on the River Trent. However, the station was actually located in the county of Derbyshire, in the East Midlands. The power station was a distinguishable landmark of Burton, which is most famous for its breweries.

The Littlebrook Power Station were a series of four oil and coal-fired power stations situated on the south bank of the River Thames, next to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel in Dartford, Kent. The final power station, Littlebrook D, ceased operating in March 2015, and has now been demolished.

Brimsdown Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the Lee Navigation at Brimsdown in Middlesex. The station had seven cooling towers which were visible from a wide area.

Barking Power Station refers to a series of power stations at various sites within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in east London. The original power station site, of the coal-fired A, B and C stations, was at River Road, Creekmouth, on the north bank of the River Thames. These stations were decommissioned by 1981 and were subsequently demolished. The later gas-fired power station was built further down the Thames near Dagenham Dock in the early 1990s. The site of the former power stations is being redeveloped as Barking Riverside.

King's Lynn Power Station refers to a combined cycle natural gas power station near King's Lynn in Norfolk, 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.

Keadby Power Stations are a pair of natural gas-fired power stations near Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire, built on the site of an older coal power station. The site lies near the B1392 and the River Trent, and the Scunthorpe-Grimsby railway. Also nearby is the Stainforth and Keadby Canal, which is part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation. The current stations are operated by SSE Thermal.

Peterborough Power Station is a 360MW gas-fired power station at Eastern Industry, Fengate in the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. It employs around forty people.

Great Yarmouth Power Station is combined cycle gas turbine power station on South Denes Road in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England, with a maximum output of 420 MW electricity, opened in 2001. It is built on the site of an oil-fired power station, built in 1958 and closed and demolished in the 1990s. A coal-fired power station was built in Great Yarmouth in 1894 and operated until 1961. The station is operated by RWE Generation UK.

Roosecote Power Station was a gas-fired, originally coal-fired power station, situated in the Roosecote district of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, North West England. The gas-fired station opened in 1991 and was the first CCGT power station to supply electricity to the United Kingdom's National Grid, but was mothballed in 2012 after a proposed biomass power station was cancelled. It was situated directly adjacent to Rampside Gas Terminal. The plant was demolished between 2014 and 2015. The site is now a 49 MW battery storage facility.

Blyth Power Station refers to a pair of now demolished coal-fired power stations, which were located on the Northumberland coast in North East England. The two stations were built alongside each other on a site near Cambois in Northumberland, on the northern bank of the River Blyth, between its tidal estuary and the North Sea. The stations took their name from the town of Blyth on the opposite bank of the estuary. Blyth A Power Station was built and opened first but had a smaller generating capacity than its sister station, Blyth B Power Station, which was built to its west four years later. The power stations' four large chimneys were a landmark of the Northumberland skyline for over 40 years; the A Station's two chimneys each stood at 140 metres (460 ft); the B Station's two chimneys were taller, at 170 metres (560 ft) each.

Connah's Quay Power Station is the name of the current 1,420 MW gas-fired power station near Connah's Quay in Flintshire in North Wales. The power plant, which is situated on the south bank of the River Dee, is the modern successor to a coal-fired power station which closed in 1984 and demolished in 1992. The replacement gas-powered plant was completed in 1996 and began producing electricity a year later. It originally received its gas from the Point of Ayr terminal, which in turn comes from the offshore gas fields in Liverpool Bay.

Shoreham Power Station is a 420MWe combined cycle gas-fired power station in Southwick, West Sussex. It was built on the site of the Shoreham B Power Station.

Staythorpe C Power Station is a 1,735 MWe gas-fired power station at Staythorpe between Southwell and Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England, between the River Trent and Nottingham to Lincoln railway line. The station was handed over to the owner RWE Generation UK from Alstom Power with full commercial operation being achieved in December 2010. The official opening ceremony attended by Charles Hendry, Minister of State took place on 9 May 2011.

Pembroke Power Station is a 2,200 MWe natural gas-fired power station near Pembroke in Wales. The power station was officially opened in September 2012 and is the largest gas-fired power station in Europe. It is also the largest power station to be built in the UK since Drax power station came online in 1986. Pembroke Power Station currently generates enough power to supply 3.5 million homes and businesses. It is operated by RWE Generation UK.

The Tilbury power stations were two thermal power stations on the north bank of the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex. The 360 MW dual coal- and oil-fired Tilbury A Power Station operated from 1956 until 1981 when it was mothballed, prior to demolition in 1999. The 1,428 MW Tilbury B Power Station operated between 1968 and 2013 and was fueled by coal, as well as co-firing with oil and, from 2011, biomass. Tilbury B was demolished in 2016–19. Since 2013 three other power stations have been proposed or constructed in Tilbury.

Watford Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated in Watford's Riverside area. The station was built by the Watford Corporation Electricity Department starting with the installation of cables in 1899 with completion around 1900, near the banks of the River Colne. A gas turbine power station was commissioned in 1980.

Blackburn power stations are a series of electricity generating stations that have provided electric power to the town of Blackburn and the wider area from 1895 to the present. The first station in Jubilee Street, Blackburn began operating in 1895. A new larger station known as Blackburn East or Whitebirk power station was commissioned in 1921 and was rebuilt in stages over the period 1942 to 1955. Whitebirk station closed in 1976. The 60 MW Blackburn Mill Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station has generated electricity since 2002. The Blackburn energy from waste (EfW) plant is currently (2020) being planned.

Leicester power stations are a series of electricity generating stations that have provided electric power to the City of Leicester and the wider area from 1894. The first station, located within Aylestone gas works, supplied electricity for street lighting. The city's new electric tram system was supplied from 1904 by a station at Lero which operated until 1930. A large coal-fired power station was constructed at Freemans Meadow in 1922 and was operational until 1976. Finally a gas turbine power plant was commissioned in 1976.

The Thornhill power station generated and supplied electricity to the town of Dewsbury and the wider regional area from 1902 to 1982, and again from 1998. The first generating station on the site was owned and operated by the Yorkshire Electric Power Company. Following nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948 Thornhill power station was operated by a succession of state owned bodies. The power station was redeveloped with new plant in 1915, 1925, 1932–37 and 1950–54. The coal-fired steam station was decommissioned in 1982, and was subsequently demolished. A gas turbine power station on the site was commissioned in 1998.

References

↑ "Little Barford power plant". RWE. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
1 2 3 4 5 6 CEGB Statistical Yearbook (various dates). CEGB, London.
1 2 3 4 Garrett, Frederick C., ed. (1959). Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply vol.56. London: Electrical Press. pp. A-71, A-126.
↑ Jacobs, Gerald (2006). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2: Eastern. Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. pp. 15c. ISBN 0954986628.
↑ Brailsford, Martyn (2016). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2: Eastern. Frome: Trackmaps. pp. 15c. ISBN 9780954986681.
1 2 3 4 "British Power Stations operating at 31 December 1961". Electrical Review. 1 June 1962: 931. 1962.
1 2 CEGB Annual Report and Accounts, various years
↑ Electricity Commission, Generation of Electricity in Great Britain year ended 31st December 1946. London: HMSO, 1947.
↑ Mr. Redmond (16 January 1984). "Coal-fired Power Stations". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Retrieved 1 September 2009.
↑ The Electricity Council (1987). Electricity Supply in the United Kingdom: a Chronology. London: The Electricity Council. p. 78. ISBN 085188105X.
↑ "The day a giant power station was blown up". Cambridge News. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
↑ "Review of Electrical Energy Storage Technologies and Systems and of their Potential for the UK" (PDF). p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
↑ Ambrose, Jillian (12 August 2019). "National Grid 'had three blackout near-misses in three months'". The Guardian. London.
↑ "National Grid ESO power cut report: Industry responds". Energy Live News. 10 September 2019.

External links

Other CCGTs in eastern England ^[usurped]

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Little Barford power plant". RWE. Retrieved 3 November 2019.

[:0-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 CEGB Statistical Yearbook (various dates). CEGB, London.

[:2-3] 1 2 3 4 Garrett, Frederick C., ed. (1959). Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply vol.56. London: Electrical Press. pp. A-71, A-126.

[4] Jacobs, Gerald (2006). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2: Eastern. Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. pp. 15c. ISBN 0954986628.

[5] Brailsford, Martyn (2016). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2: Eastern. Frome: Trackmaps. pp. 15c. ISBN 9780954986681.

[:1-6] 1 2 3 4 "British Power Stations operating at 31 December 1961". Electrical Review. 1 June 1962: 931. 1962.

[:3-7] 1 2 CEGB Annual Report and Accounts, various years

[8] Electricity Commission, Generation of Electricity in Great Britain year ended 31st December 1946. London: HMSO, 1947.

[closure-9] Mr. Redmond (16 January 1984). "Coal-fired Power Stations". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Retrieved 1 September 2009.

[10] The Electricity Council (1987). Electricity Supply in the United Kingdom: a Chronology. London: The Electricity Council. p. 78. ISBN 085188105X.

[11] "The day a giant power station was blown up". Cambridge News. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2019.

[12] "Review of Electrical Energy Storage Technologies and Systems and of their Potential for the UK" (PDF). p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2012.

[13] Ambrose, Jillian (12 August 2019). "National Grid 'had three blackout near-misses in three months'". The Guardian. London.

[14] "National Grid ESO power cut report: Industry responds". Energy Live News. 10 September 2019.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]