Rye House power station

Rye House Power Station is a 715 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station located near Rye House railway station in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.^[1]

Rye House power station
Rye House Power Station
Country	England
Location	Hertfordshire, East of England
Coordinates	51.763°N 0.009°E / 51.763; 0.009
Status	Operational
Construction began	Early 1990s
Commission date	November 1993
Operator	Vitol
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Natural gas
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	715 MW
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons
grid reference TL387090

History

The current station was built on the site of an earlier 128 MW coal-fired power station built in 1951, and an open cycle gas turbine plant commissioned in 1965 (see below). Both these stations were closed on 1 November 1982^[2] and were subsequently demolished.

The gas-fired station, near Hoddesdon, is about eighteen miles north of London, was built in the early 1990s and fully commissioned in November 1993 and officially opened in April 1994. Output from the station is enough to meet the daily power needs of nearly a million people - almost the population of Hertfordshire.

Rye House is owned and operated by VPI, part of the Vitol group.

Specification

Rye House was built by Siemens AG. It has three Siemens V94.2 gas turbines rotating at 3000 rpm. Each drives a generator producing 150 MW at a terminal voltage of 11 kV and exhausts at 540 °C into a Babcock Energy steam generator. The three steam generators supply a single Siemens turbogenerator producing 250 MW at 15.75 kV. The combined outputs feed the National Grid at 400 kV. The station has the largest air-cooled condenser in Europe. The chimneys are 58 m high. The station employs thirty-seven people.

Previous power stations

Rye House power station
Country	United Kingdom
Location	Rye Park, Hertfordshire
Status	Decommissioned and demolished
Construction began	1950
Commission date	1951 (coal-fired), 1965 (gas turbine)
Decommission date	1 November 1982
Owners	British Electricity Authority (1948–1955) Central Electricity Authority (1955–1957) Central Electricity Generating Board (1958–1982)
Operator	By owner
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Coal, fuel oil
Turbine technology	Steam turbines and open cycle gas turbines
Chimneys	1
Cooling towers	3
Cooling source	River water and cooling towers
Combined cycle?	No
Power generation
Units operational	4 × 32 MW turbo-alternators, 2 × 70 MW gas turbines
Units decommissioned	All
Nameplate capacity	128 MW + 140 MW
Annual net output	(See graphs)
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons

The 128 MW coal-fired Rye House power station was built by the British Electricity Authority (later the Central Electricity Generating Board) and was commissioned in 1951.^[3] The station was located between the London to Cambridge railway line and the Lee Navigation, providing access for the delivery of coal and a water supply for condensing steam in the plant. The building was designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in a steel-framed, brick-clad ‘cathedral of power’ style^[4] exemplified by Scott's Battersea and Bankside power stations.

The station had single chimney and three reinforced concrete cooling towers.^[5] Each tower had a capacity of 1.3 million gallons per hour (1.64 m³/s).^[6] A dock was built on the Lee Navigation adjacent to the power station for unloading coal in addition to the railway sidings.

The station comprised four 30 MW Richardsons Westgarth-Parsons turbo-alternators, generating at 33 kV.^[3] These were supplied with steam from the Babcock pulverised coal boilers which produced a total of 1.4 million pounds per hour (176.4 kg/s) of steam at 600 psi (41.4 bar) and 454 °C.^[3]

In 1965, an open cycle gas turbine power station was built adjacent to the steam station. This comprised two 70 MW oil-fired gas turbine/generator sets.^[7] This was a peak shaving plant designed to operate at times of maximum demand.

The output from the steam plant and the gas turbine plant are shown in the following charts.^[8][3][6][9]

Rye House (steam) power station output 1954–1982 in GWh.

Rye House (gas turbine) power station output 1965–1982 in GWh.

Rye House power station was decommissioned on 1 November 1982. It was subsequently demolished and then replaced by the CCGT station.

See also

• England portal
• Energy portal

• Energy policy of the United Kingdom
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom

References

1. "Rye House Power Station" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007.
2. Mr. Redmond (16 January 1984). "Coal-fired Power Stations". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 1 September 2009.
3. "British Power Stations operating at 31 December 1961". Electrical Review. 1 June 1962: 931. 1 June 1962.
4. Stamp, Gavin and Glynn Boyd Harte (1979). Temples of Power. Burford: Cygnet Press.
5. "Rye House power station, Rye Park, 1953". Britain From Above. 1953. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
6. Garrett, Frederick C., ed. (1959). Garke's Manual of Electricity Supply (vol. 56). London: Electrical Press. pp. A-90–91, A-132.
7. CEGB (1965). CEGB Statistical Yearbook 1965. London: CEGB. p. 12.
8. CEGB Statistical Yearbook (various years 1964-1983), CEGB
9. CEGB Annual Report and Accounts, various years

External links

• Other CCGTs in eastern England^[usurped]
• Photos of station on geograph