EM - August/September 2011 - (Page 2)

2 News 24 Aug/Sept 2011 www.esb.ie/em Editor’s desk BERniE HEALy 8 The investment of €360M by ESB in a new state-of-the-ar Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) t 435MW Combin capacity at the station to power plant at Aghada has increased the generating ed Bernie Healy visits to view963MW, enough power to supply one million homes. the latest developments at station, which also ranks among Ireland the country’s most efficient ’s largest power generators. Images: Neil Warner - www.warnerphoto.o rg & John Sheehan Photography Spotlight on Aghada ENERGY INTERNATIONAL June/July 2011 www.esb.ie/em Appeal for Third-world Existing Station Overview AGHADA GENERATING Station has a long and proud tradition of safely and reliably supplying electricity to the Grid. Unit 1 is a 258MW natural gasfired conventional plant and was commissioned in 1980. There followed in quick succession three 90MW open cycle gas turbines CT11, CT12 and CT14 which operate on natural gas primarily or on distillate as a back-up fuel. The station recently completed a €75M investment programme across these existing units, which included major overhauls of each unit and a complete change-out of the control and instrumentation equipment on Unit 1. The control room was also extensively renovated to ensure that operation of the new CCGT could be seamlessly integrated with the existing plant. Since the commissioning of the new plant, all 5 units are operated by staff from a single integrated control room. ■ (l-r): Paul Smith, Station Manager with Austin Stack in the control room. “THE NEW ALSTOM 435MW CCGT is based on its latest GT26B 2.2 gas turbine and is the most ef cient and cleanest large scale thermal generating facility in Ireland and among the most technically advanced worldwide,” Paul Smith, Station Manager at Aghada tells EM. “The development phase for the CCGT project started in 2003, construction commenced in August 2007, and the new plant was of cially taken over by Aghada in May 2010." “The last few years have been a very busy and successful period at Aghada with the construction of the new CCGT and the refurbishment of the existing units,” adds Paul. “This huge work load was delivered safely with great commitment and support from staff within the station and our colleagues in Commercial Group and ESBI. Aghada is now the only station in Ireland that serves all three market segments of base load, mid-merit and peaking demand, so this very signi cant investment across the existing midmerit and peaking eet will ensure that these units continue to deliver world class levels of reliability and exibility in the competitive electricity market into the future.” Eighty people are employed in the station across management, operations, technical services, maintenance, HR, nance and administration. ■ (l-r): Jerry O’Connor, Neil O’Sullivan, Pat Curtin, Kevin O’Donoghue, Ronan O’Gadhra, Catherine O’Connell and Pat Fogarty. Plant Overview (l-r): Eoin Crowley, Terry Cummins and Mike Daly. Unit Manufacturer / Model Year Commissioned Primary Fuel / Back-up Stack Height / m Fuel CCGT Alstom GT26 M.A.N. / B2.2 Alstom 2010 1980 Natural Gas / Natural Gas Distillate 152 258 40 90 1.9 Unit 1 CT11 CT12 70 Max Output (Exported to Grid) MW 435 Thermal Ef ciency / % Availability (2010) / % Forced Outage Rate (2010) General Info: Site Area / acres Staff 158 80 58.7 97 /% 2.3 65 90 30 Alstom / Alstom / Alstom / GE 9E GE 9E GE 9E 1981 1982 1983 Natural Gas / Natural Gas / Natural Gas / Distillate Distillate Distillate 65 65 90 30 99 0.8 90 30 97.1 0.9 CT14 AGHADA’S Staff Management Forum provides a positive platform to address issues that have relevance for all staff and focuses on information sharing and consultation. Members of the group are made up of representatives of the staff and management, thereby ensuring that the voice of everyone in the plant is heard. Mary Fitzpatrick, the elected chairperson of the group says that “The group holds regular meetings and works to an agreed agenda. At the minute we are discussing station performance targets”. ■ Aghada staff management forum 99.5 0.2 (l-r): Declan O’Keeffe, Mary Fitzpatrick, Terry Cummins, Tom O’Sullivan, Willie Cunningham, Paul Smith and Pat Curtin. Missing from photo are Seamus O’Brien and Neil O’Sullivan. Letters Dear Bernie, On looking at the aerial photograph in your recent feature on Aghada, I was delighted to see that the chimneys of the three gas turbine units merged so well into the surrounding countryside. At the design stage great importance was given to the effects on the environment, even to the visual effect as seen from miles away across the bay in Cobh. It was found that a special steel, CORTEN, on ageing, would develop a protective patina of exactly the colour required and would not need painting or other treatment for its lifetime. After all these years, your photo shows that CORTEN filled the bill very well. Peter O’Connor, Ex-Project Dept. Hello and welcome to the August/September issue of EM. Value for money with top quality standards is what people are looking for now and it seems that SPORTSCO certainly can deliver both when you see the facilities that are on offer currently. SPORTSCO’s general manager Lorna Brady, says the facility is very much aware of what’s happening in the leisure industry at the moment which is seeing many in the industry going out of business. SPORTSCO consistently emerges as award winners and continues to draw new membership which is a testament to the work that is being carried out by the team down at South Lotts Road. Take a little time to visit SPORTSCO and check it out for yourself in the near future. You’ll see many of your colleagues have heard the good news ahead of you and have been members for many years. We might think the years go quickly but it’s hard to believe that it’s actually 25 years since the famous ESB Pole Run took place. The momentum behind the fund raising event for the Children’s Hospital in Temple Street was unbelievable as the ‘pole push’ moved around the country attracting publicity and followers as well as much needed funds. ESB and its staff have had a long relationship with Temple Street. Hopefully, you’ll still recognise some of the faces in our ‘Archive’ item on the event in this issue. AN APPEAL FOR you to check for crutches, wheelchairs or any such items is being made by retired North Wall staff member Christy Keeley. These will be sent to a Third-world country. One shipment was already sent out by ESB Cork and another by the Oblate Fathers, Inchicore. This has made a huge difference in the lives of those who received the mobility aids. Cotton clothing and a large amount of confec- tionary was also included. You can leave these items in Oblate Fathers, Inchicore or contact Christy Keeley on 087-6694935 or 053-9130372. Christy would like to take this opportunity to Stuart Donnelly in CRC, Fr Vincent Mulligan OMI, Frank O’Neill of Rialto Motors and Ronnie Ritchie Jnr and SVP Gorey for their help and donations. Donation to ElectricAid EM would like to acknowledge an amount of money which was received anonymously in April last. This money has been donated to ESB ElectricAid. ElectricAid Special African Famine Appeal page 09 How to make the most of IT by Eddie Nally ! Filling a Range in Excel with Weekdays Only To Fill a range of Cells in a series such as days of the week, You normally would type Mon in any cell and using the left mouse button on the lower right corner of the cell, drag across a range to complete a series of days. Draw results EM welcomes news, views, articles, letters, photos and feedback on any topic. All submitted articles should preferably be e-mailed. Please contact: Bernie Healy, Editor T (01) 702 7402 (office) extn. 27402 (internal) M 087 261 5514 F (01) 676 0727 internal outlook address: Healy.Bernie external email address: Bernie.healy@esb.ie Closing date: Competitions and crosswords must be returned by August 31st. Deadlines: The deadline for articles, photos, etc. for the next issue is September 10th. We are always delighted to receive items for publication. Published by ESB Communications. Corporate Make the most of IT ! SPorTSCo Draw rESulTS JuNE 2011 PRIZE €3,000 €1,500 €1,000 €200 €200 €200 €200 €200 €200 NAME Sean Brady,Wilton Patrick Farrell, Retired John Casey, Retired Seamus O’Colmain, Retired Micheal Kelly, Poolbeg Joseph Turner, Retired Desmond Greene, Retired George Downey, Retired John Aylward,Wexford Try using the Right Mouse button to drag and fill the range and you will get the additional option to fill the range with Weekdays instead. Anne Deignan Administrative Assistant T (01) 702 6282 (office) extn. 26282 (internal) UCT LABELLING GUIDE M 087 280 6615 (mobile) F (01) 676 0727 internal outlook address: Deignan.Anne external email address: Anne.deignan@esb.ie Produced by Zahra Publishing Ltd. First Floor, Zoe House, Church Road, Greystones, Co. Wicklow. E custom@zahrapublishing.com www.esb.ie The views expressed in EM are not necessarily those of ESB. XX% JulY 2011 PRIZE €3,000 €1,500 €1,000 €200 €200 €200 €200 MS4 €200 €200 Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX LOGO Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX ESB supports recycling www.repak.ie Please recycle this paper 100 MS1 MS2 MS3 NAME Charles Kavanagh, Retired John Stack,VSS Laurence Early, Retired Joan Cummins, Head Office Thomas Naughton,VSS Desmond Hickey, Head Office Christopher RE1 Murray, Portlaoise MS5 Margaret Brennan, Retired Horace Friel, Retired XX% Click on the Ô Fill WeekdaysÕ menu option and the range will fill as normal but this time will exclude the Ô SaturdayÕ and Ô SundayÕ . Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Networks Training Centre Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX Cert no. XXX-XXX-XXXX http://www.esb.ie/em http://www.esb.ie/em http://www.warnerphoto.org http://www.esb.ie http://www.fsc.org http://www.repak.ie

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of EM - August/September 2011

EM - August/September 2011
In This Issue
News
Services & ESB Electric Ireland
ESB Networks Ltd
ESB Energy International
Health & Habitat
Life

EM - August/September 2011