Page 45 - Gi flipbook June/July 2018

POWERING reduced to 27barg for the gas turbines.
It is supplied by the national gas grid,
THROUGH WITH THE which operates up to 70bar, meaning
compression is not always needed.
The second half of the visit was at
WELSH SECTION the Seabank Power facility, in Bristol.
Here, electricity is generated via the
main site CCGTs, heat recovery
steam generators (HRSGs) and
steam turbines.
Allan Craig, Mechanical Technician,
gave us a tour of the metering
compound, gas treatment area, gas
turbine building, feed pumps and
cooling water pumps associated with
Seabank 2.
The tour then continued around the
control room, steam turbine, gas
turbine and boiler house associated
Visiting the plant Learning about the process with the larger generating unit,
Seabank 1.
By Helen Fitzgerald, approximately 1.6 million people and Our guide at this point changed to
Welsh Section Chair was built in two stages by Siemens Matt Thomas, Mechanical Engineer.
Power Generation. It initially opened All maintenance activities for the gas
MEMBERS FROM IGEM’S Welsh as a 755MW station in 2000 supply equipment on site are provided
Section visited Abson compressor (Seabank 1). A second engine, Seabank by Wales & West Utilities, who were
station and Seabank Power Station to 2, was then commissioned in January on site that day to discuss ongoing
learn about the complex processes 2001, providing an additional maintenance requirements.
operating at both sites. generation output of 385MW. The The electricity generated is fed into
Seabank is a 1,140MW combined site operates with a thermal efficiency the National Grid high voltage
cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power of 55 per cent. electricity transmission system via a
station that runs on natural gas This full day visit began with a tour number of step-up transformers and
supplied by a 70bar, 42in pipeline of the compressor site at Abson, led by the Seabank 400kV GIS substation.
from Abson. Tim Hewer, Electrical, Control and All who attended thoroughly
It’s a £435 million plant run by Instrumentation Technician for Seabank enjoyed the visit and were impressed
Seabank Power Ltd, owned by a Power Ltd. The role of the compressor by the depth of knowledge shared and
50:50 split between Cheung Kong station is to linepack the 27km, 42in the wide variety of electrical,
Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) Ltd pipeline, which can supply the power mechanical and gas engineering in
and SSE. station with nine hours of fuel gas. operation at both sites. ■
It can provide enough electricity for At the power station, the pressure is

IGEM YPN IS ENTRANCED BY CNG acquisition (SCADA) system.
YPN committee member Nick
By Linda Mee, YPN Secretary plant and equipment, including gas Jerman, of Cadent, said: “I certainly
compressors, priority panels, high enjoyed the visit and found it a very
IN APRIL, members of IGEM’s Young pressure gas storage, gas dispensers insightful glimpse into a different
Persons Network (YPN) were treated and the supervisory control and data aspect of the industry.” ■
to a tour of a bio-CNG refuelling
station in Leyland, Lancashire.
First off, they listened to an
absorbing presentation by Ian
Roughley, Project Manager with
CNG Fuels, who designed, built and
operate the unmanned station which
is accessible 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 365 days a year.
During the visit, the group
watched with avid interest (much to
the bemusement of the truck
drivers) as Waitrose lorries were
filled up with compressed gas. They
also had a close look at the site Tour of the refuelling station

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