Carrington is an 880MW combined-cycle gas-fired power station being developed on a 23ha site in Manchester, UK, by Carrington Power, a subsidiary of Ireland’s state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB).
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Planning permission for the £1bn ($1.58bn) gas-fired power station was received in 2008. Construction began in 2013 and the start of commercial operations is expected in 2016.
The Carrington power project is expected to create more than 800 jobs during construction, in addition to 40 permanent jobs during operational phase. The gas-based plant is expected to produce clean energy sufficient to power approximately one million homes. The facility is designed to have an operational life of more than 25 years.
Carrington gas-fired power station make-up
The power station is being constructed on the decommissioned and demolished Carrington coal-fired power station in Greater Manchester. The site lies between the villages of Carrington and Partington, approximately 12km south-west of Manchester city centre.
The combined-cycle power plant will comprise two Alstom GT26 gas turbines, two horizontal triple-pressure heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), two TOPGAS hydrogen-cooled turbo generators and two STF15C steam turbines with axial exhaust. The plant is expected to operate at a fuel efficiency rate of approximately 57%.
The GT26 gas turbines are equipped with Alstom’s unique sequential combustion technology to achieve high-performance output by burning fuel in two, dry low-NOx combustor stages. The HRSGs are equipped with Alstom’s optimised for cycling and constructability (OCC) technology for achieving high flexibility for reliable high-cycling duty.
The combined-cycle power plant is designed for automatic control from a central control room (CCR) featuring a plant control console for start-up, on-line operation, and shutdown of gas and steam turbines.
The plant also houses an auxiliary boiler to supply steam for start-up of the steam turbines and an emergency diesel generator to facilitate safe shutdown.
Cooling water for the thermal power plant will be sourced from the Manchester Ship Canal and utilised in a hybrid cooling tower system. Water from the tower will be returned to the canal at a temperature higher by 8° than the abstraction temperature.
Transmission infrastructure
Electricity generated from the plant will be fed to the national grid via a newly built 400kV substation, through overhead transmission network. The two generating modules of the plant will be connected to the switchyard comprised five bays of gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) through dedicated generator step-up transformers.
Gas supply for the Carrington power station
Natural gas required for the combined cycle operations at the plant will be supplied by ESB Independent Generation Trading, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ESB. In return, ESB will purchase the entire electricity produced at the power station.
The natural gas will be transported via a new dedicated gas pipeline linking the National Transmission System at Centrica’s above ground installation (AGI).
Financing
The project is financed by a syndicate of international banks and institutions comprising HSBC, RBS, Lloyds, Santander, BBVA, KfW-IPEX and Société Générale. Financial closure was achieved in September 2012.
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SERV Swiss Export Risk Insurance acted as the export credit agency for the project.
Contractors involved
The consortium of Alstom and Duro Felguera was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the gas-fired power plant in October 2012. Duro Felguera is responsible for the plant construction and site management.
Apart from supplying the turbines, generators and other associated components, Alstom will also provide equipment maintenance services for the plant under a 12-year service agreement.
In 2009, ABB won a $24m contract for the delivery of the substation to connect Carrington power plant with the UK National Grid.
Peers was awarded a 600t steelwork subcontract for the construction of Carrington power station in April 2014. CONTAINEX built the construction site accommodation village for the power project. Quality Freight UK was engaged to transport heavy components used for the plant construction.
