Audio version

17

GENERATION & WHOLESALE MARKETS

February/March 2014 • www.esb.ie/em

Sheet piling

All of these achievements mean we can now progress the mechanical and electrical work - check out future editions of EM for developments.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please just get in touch!

CARRINGTON'S KEY PLAYERS

• ESB is the 100% owner of the project via a subsidiary company, Carrington Power Limited (CPL).
• ESB will also manage all the power and gas trading for the station when it's operational.
• G&WM: Owns the project on behalf of ESB.
• ESB International: Owner's engineer monitoring and overseeing the construction of the station and related infrastructure.
• Alstrom and Duro Felguera: The contractors hired by CPL to design and construct the power station on a full ‘turn key’ basis.
• National Grid Electricity: Pro vides the high voltage trans mission infrastructure for the station.
• National Grid Gas: Provides the high pressure gas transmission system which the station ties into.

Article boiler parts arrive

The Carrington Project is a real cross-team effort: many people across the ESB Group are lending their expertise to the project and I want to thank everyone for their hard work to date.

Pictured in December are the cross-business team for Carrington

Watching the barge arrive with the gas turbine

DID YOU KNOW?

• The gas exhaust temperature of a GT26 turbine (616°C) is roughly equivalent to the initial point of explosion of a volcano (633°C).
• It takes a GT26 turbine just 81 hours to produce enough electricity to power the London Underground for a whole year.
• Steam turbines have to deal with steam at nearly 600°C and 150 bar (steam is invisible in these conditions).
• A typical last stage turbine blade has a centrifugal pull of around 200 tonnes (equivalent to 130 family cars hung off it) and the tip goes faster than the speed of sound.

Unloading the gas turbine from the Manchester Ship Canal

A 3D model of how the finished plant will look when completed at Carrington

FAST FACTS ABOUT CARRINGTON

• Financial close: September 2012
• Where: on a brown-field site, near Manchester, close to the Manchester Ship Canal and the Mersey River
• Site history: former coal-fired power station
• Now building: a CCGT power station
• MWs generated: 881
• No. of equivalent homes powered: over 1 million
• No. of people working on site so far: 423
• Peak numbers on site: over 800 during Q2 2014
• Project completion: Q1 2016