Upgrade planned for Spalding Power Station
An application has been put forward to boost the capacity of Spalding Power Station while delivering electricity with as low a carbon emission as possible.
Spalding Energy Company Limited, which runs the Spalding Energy Power Station in West Marsh Road, Spalding, has applied to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to vary consent granted in 2000 to enable the upgrade.
It wants to allow an increase in the permitted electrical output of the generating station from “about 800MW (megawatt)” output to “up to 950MW as facilitated by an upgrade to the existing gas turbines and associated systems”. (A single megawatt is equal to one million watts.)
A spokesperson for owners InterGen said: “Spalding Energy Power Station is a modern, efficient and flexible plant that began original commercial operations in 2004, with a generating capacity of 800MW.
“In order to ensure that the station remains competitive and delivers electricity with the lowest carbon emissions based on today’s available technology, we have applied to increase the capacity of the plant to 950MW.
“The application includes scope for increased efficiency with lower carbon emissions and will enable Spalding Energy to continue to generate reliable and flexible energy for the homes in the East of England.”
A £100million expansion to Spalding Power Station was completed in 2019, giving it capacity to provide electricity to nearly 1.5million homes.
The expansion site is next to the main power station and houses a 300MW natural gas-fired system.
Jim Lightfoot, InterGen’s chief executive officer, explained upon the completion: “We are delighted to have completed this expansion to our power station in Spalding and we greatly enjoy being a part of the local community here. It has been accommodating to us ever since construction began on the original site back in 2001.”
The open cycle gas turbine at the expansion site consists of a compressor, combustion chamber and a turbine. Its compressor takes in air from the atmosphere and raises its pressure, feeding it into the combustion chamber, where fuel is added and burned with a portion of the air. The heated gases coming out of the combustion chamber drive the turbine, generating electricity.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, copies of the new application cannot be viewed at public council offices but can instead be viewed at: www.intergen.com/our-assets/spalding
