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130-559: The National Grid is a wide area synchronous grid operating at a nominal 50 hertz. Most of the physical HV parts of the grid consists of 400 kV lines as well as some 275 kV lines that collectively form a supergrid . It has several undersea interconnectors : an AC connector to the Isle of Man , and DC connectors to Northern Ireland, the Shetland Islands , the Republic of Ireland, France, Belgium,

260-629: A grid services market. "Dynamic Containment" started in October 2020, initially priced at £17 per MW per hour, and Dynamic Regulation (DR) started in April 2022. Consumers of electricity are split into two categories: half-hourly metered (HH) and non-half-hourly metered (NHH). Customers whose peak demand is sufficiently high are obliged to have a HH meter, which, in effect, takes a meter reading every 30 minutes. The rates at which charges are levied on these customers' electricity suppliers therefore varies 17,520 times

390-460: A stretch target to be carbon neutral or negative by 2033, well ahead of the UK's national target to achieve this by 2050. It also aims to have the capability to be 'zero carbon' as early as 2025, meaning that if energy suppliers are able to produce sufficient green power, the grid could theoretically run without any greenhouse gas emissions at all (i.e. no carbon capture or offsetting would be needed as

520-482: A "national gridiron " supply system be created. The 1926 Act created the Central Electricity Board , which set up the UK's first synchronised, nationwide AC grid, running at 132 kV, 50 Hz. The grid was created with 6,400 kilometres (4,000 miles) of cables – mostly overhead – linking the 122 most efficient power stations. The first "grid tower" was erected near Edinburgh on 14 July 1928, and work

650-481: A (non-leap) year. The TNUoS charges for a HH metered customer are based on their demand during three half-hour periods of greatest demand between November and February, known as the Triad. Due to the nature of electricity demand in the UK, the three Triad periods always fall in the early evening, and must be separated by at least ten clear working days. The TNUoS charges for a HH customer are simply their average demand during

780-580: A civil lawsuit against them in March 2013. West Burton C is a planned 299 MW OCGT peaking plant , to be located on the West Burton site. It was granted planning consent in October 2020. The land and rights to build the station were retained by EDF Energy upon the sale of West Burton B to EIG in 2021. At the time, it was reported EDF Energy had 'no immediate plans' to build the station. West Burton A provided electricity for around two million people, and

910-561: A controlled flow of energy while also functionally isolating the independent AC frequencies of each side. Each of the interconnects in North America is synchronized at a nominal 60 Hz, while those of Europe run at 50 Hz. The benefits of synchronous zones include pooling of generation, resulting in lower generation costs; pooling of load, resulting in significant equalizing effects; common provisioning of reserves, resulting in cheaper primary and secondary reserve power costs; opening of

1040-417: A de-aerator and three low pressure heaters. Steam is bled from the main turbine H.P. exhaust to drive the main boiler feed pump turbine, which exhausts to the feed heating system to improve the overall cycle efficiency. The main feed pump turbine is a 15,150 hp single-cylinder impulse machine with steam conditions, at the h.p. exhaust, of 610 psia (42.06 bar) at 366 °C. The rotor has eleven stages and

1170-454: A double flow arrangement for the I.P. cylinders as well as for the L.P. cylinders. There are double casings on H.P., I.P., and L.P. cylinders, and the last stages of the L.P. are fitted with 914.4 mm (36.00 in) blades. Stop valves and governor valves are situated at the inlet to the H.P. strainers and I.P. turbine. There are four 228.6 mm (9.00 in) bore main steam pipes, and four 431.8 mm (17.00 in) bore pipes on both

1300-435: A few hours of operation giving time for market contracts to be established to cover longer term balancing. The grid frequency is normally maintained within 49.8 and 50.2 Hz. Frequency-response reserves act to keep the system's AC frequency within ±1% of 50  Hz , except in exceptional circumstances. These are used on a second by second basis to either lower the demand or to provide extra generation. In an emergency where

1430-496: A flow of 2.2 GW between Western Scotland and North Wales. Because of the power loss associated with this north to south flow, the effectiveness and efficiency of new generation capacity is significantly affected by its location. For example, new generating capacity on the south coast has about 12% greater effectiveness due to reduced transmission system power losses compared to new generating capacity in north England, and about 20% greater effectiveness than in northern Scotland. There

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1560-518: A further six months with the closure date revised to 31 March 2023. This was in response to the Government request to keep the units available over the winter of 2022–23. The station closed as planned on 31 March 2023. Decommissioning of the station took place throughout the latter months of 2023, and demolition began in January 2024 with a planned end date of 2028. There has been protest to the demolition of

1690-411: A grid to be able to provide sufficient current to keep the voltage and frequency reasonably stable until circuit breakers can resolve the fault. Many traditional generator systems had wires which could be overloaded for very short periods without damage, but inverters are not as able to deliver multiple times their rated load. The short circuit ratio can be calculated for each point on the grid, and if it

1820-422: A maximum continuous rating of 1565 t /h (3,450,000 lb /h) and a design efficiency of 90.75%. Built by International Combustion , the design is similar in many respects to that of the now redundant 550 MW ICL boiler at Thorpe Marsh which had two furnaces with centre division walls. There are six stages of superheat and three stages of reheat in each boiler, with superheat and reheat stages mixed in position. As

1950-408: A maximum rate of 75 MW during the year would still be charged for the full 100 MW of TEC. In some cases, there are negative TNUoS tariffs. These generators are paid an amount based on their peak net supply over three proving runs over the course of the year. This represents the reduction in costs caused by having a generator close to the centre of demand of the country. National Grid uses

2080-476: A moderate distance. The offset tower of the line group has a light yellow colour with intense hue which acts as a nodal point. This was decided via a technical committee, the architects and William Holford in 1962. However, 10 years after construction the towers were indistinguishable from one another as the yellow tint was much faded. The main building colours are limited to black, white and yellow. The ancillary buildings are grouped around two courts through which

2210-603: A new non-lattice design of electricity pylon, the T-pylon, was built near East Huntspill , Somerset for the new 35 mile Hinkley Point C to Avonmouth connection. In 2023, the National Grid began removing equipment from China's NARI Technology over national security concerns. The contiguous synchronous grid covers England (including the Isle of Wight ), Scotland (including some of the Scottish islands such as Orkney , Skye and

2340-509: A normal cooling range of 8.5 °C (47.3 °F). The towers are 106.7 m (350 ft) high with internal diameters at sill level of 86.56 m (284.0 ft) and at the top 49.99 and 46.33 m (164.0 and 152.0 ft) at the throat. Cooling tower C1 was fitted with reinforced concrete tension rings in 2000 to provide additional stability to the structural shell. Cooling water is circulated by Allen Gwynnes horizontal centrifugal bottom suction cooling water pumps, with four in each of

2470-454: A result of operating experience on boilers of this size at Thorpe Marsh it was found that higher superheat temperatures and larger pressure drops than the design figures occurred in the boiler. New materials had to be employed for the superheat sections and the tube paths redesigned as a result. The boilers are 53.65 m (176.0 ft) high and the main suspension girders span 27.43 m (90.0 ft). The total downward thermal expansion

2600-422: A row with Serbia , leading to the phase in the whole synchronous grid of Continental Europe lagging behind what it should have been. The frequency dropped to 49.996 Hz. Over time, this caused synchronous electric clocks to become six minutes slow until the disagreement was resolved. (2007) (2018) (2020) (2016) (2022) A partial table of some of the larger interconnections. Historically, on

2730-412: A sufficient margin for future expansion. The decision in favour of a 400 kV system was made for two main reasons. Firstly the majority of the 275 kV lines could be uprated to 400 kV, and secondly it was envisaged that operation at 400 kV could begin in 1965 compared with 1968 for a 500 kV scheme. Design work was started and in order to meet the programme for 1965 it was necessary for

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2860-570: A synchronized utility frequency and is electrically tied together during normal system conditions. Also known as synchronous zones , the most powerful is the Northern Chinese State Grid with 1,700 gigawatts (GW) of generation capacity, while the widest region served is that of the IPS/UPS system serving most countries of the former Soviet Union. Synchronous grids with ample capacity facilitate electricity trading across wide areas. In

2990-562: A synchronous grid is stored energy that a grid has available which can provide extra power for up to a few seconds to maintain the grid frequency. Historically, this was provided only by the angular momentum of the generators, and gave the control circuits time to adjust their output to variations in loads, and sudden generator or distribution failures. Inverters connected to HVDC usually have no inertia, but wind power can provide inertia, and solar and battery systems can provide synthetic inertia . In short circuit situations, it's important for

3120-464: A synchronous grid, all the generators naturally lock together electrically and run at the same frequency , and stay very nearly in phase with each other. For rotating generators, a local governor regulates the driving torque and helps maintain a more or less constant speed as loading changes. Droop speed control ensures that multiple parallel generators share load changes in proportion to their rating. Generation and consumption must be balanced across

3250-522: A synchronous grid, or between them. The Tres Amigas SuperStation aims to enable energy transfers and trading between the Eastern Interconnection and Western Interconnection using 30GW HVDC Interconnectors . West Burton power stations The West Burton power stations are a pair of power stations on the River Trent , near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire , England . West Burton A

3380-548: A trench 34 feet wide. There would be a substation at Burwell, Cambridgeshire . A possible substation had been planned for Great Wilbraham in Cambridgeshire. BICC received an order for the line in May 1962, with another 400kV line from Dungeness to Lydd and Bolnex. The line of 168-foot pylons had reached Aubourn by July 1963. The line would first operate at 275 kV, now costing £54,000 per mile in 1963. Foundations were being built in

3510-465: Is a 40 MW AC cable to the Isle of Man, the Isle of Man to England Interconnector and a 260km 600MW HVDC cable to the Shetland Islands . The UK grid is connected to adjacent European electrical grids by submarine power cables . In 2014, the UK's electricity interconnection level (off-island transmission capacity relative to production capacity) was 6%. As of 2024, the total capacity of these connectors

3640-502: Is about 228 to 305 mm (9.0 to 12.0 in). The superheater output is at 569 °C 2,400 psi (165.5 bar ). The reheater has inlet and outlet temperatures of 364 and 569 °C with an inlet pressure of 592 psi (40.82 bar) and steam flow of 1243 t/h (2,740,000 lb/h). The single steam drum weighs 162.6 tonne (160 tons). The furnace is tangentially fired with eight burner boxes, each with six burners, together with oil burners in each box for lighting up. Steam temperature control

3770-435: Is arranged so that the maximum practical percentage of core flux is in the direction of the oriented grain. The rings of lamination's are built into a skeleton frame which is flexibly supported inside the main stator frame to prevent double-frequency vibrations being transmitted to the foundations. Axial gas passages are provided within the core by holes punched in the lamination's, which line up throughout its length. The ends of

3900-555: Is by electrically operated tilting burners and by electro-hydraulically operated spray desuperheaters, giving a control range of 70 to 100% of the maximum continuous rating. There are four desuperheaters for each of the superheater and reheater circuits. The economisers have a heating surface of 44,970 m (484,100 sq ft). There are two forced and two induced draught Davidson fans per boiler. The f.d. fans are driven by constant speed 1,300 hp motors at 596 rpm and are rated at 11,380 m /min (402,000 (cu ft)/min). A saving in

4030-404: Is fed to the turbine end of the rotor through axial holes machined in the hub of the blower rotor from an annulus formed between the end bracket and the blower outlet diffuser. Large diameter tubes passing longitudinally through the stator frame connect this annulus to the extreme end section at the slipring end, from which the slipring end of the rotor is fed. The three-stage axial blower mounted on

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4160-506: Is found to be too low, for steps to be taken to increase it to be above 1, which is considered stable. For timekeeping purposes, over the course of a day the operating frequency will be varied so as to balance out deviations and to prevent line-operated clocks from gaining or losing significant time by ensuring there are 4.32 million on 50 Hz, and 5.184 million cycles on 60 Hz systems each day. This can, rarely, lead to problems. In 2018 Kosovo used more power than it generated due to

4290-433: Is often achieved by using diesel generators. Such generators are also routinely used by National Grid. If the total TNUoS or Triad receipts (say £15,000/MW·year × 50,000 MW = £750 million/year) is divided by the total number of units delivered by the UK generating system in a year (the total number of units sold – say 360 terawatt-hours (1.3 EJ).), then a crude estimate can be made of transmission costs, and one gets

4420-458: Is output ( droop speed control ). When the grid is lightly loaded the grid frequency runs above the nominal frequency, and this is taken as an indication by Automatic Generation Control systems across the network that generators should reduce their output. In addition, there's often central control, which can change the parameters of the AGC systems over timescales of a minute or longer to further adjust

4550-575: Is over 9 GW. They include direct-current cables to northern France (2 GW HVDC Cross-Channel , 1 GW HVDC IFA-2 , 1 GW ElecLink via the Channel Tunnel ); Belgium (1 GW HVDC Nemo Link ); the Netherlands (1 GW HVDC BritNed ); Norway (1.4 GW HDVC North Sea Link ); Northern Ireland (500 MW HVDC Moyle Interconnector ); the Republic of Ireland (500 MW HVDC East–West Interconnector ), and Denmark (1.4 GW Viking Link ). A further 500 MW link with

4680-454: Is rectified by a 3-phase bridge-connected group of silicon diodes which are natural air cooled and accommodated in a bank of nine cubicles located on a platform cantilevered from the side of the foundation block. Mounted adjacent to the rectifiers is the main field suppression circuit-breaker which incorporates a discharge resistance and auxiliary switch to close the discharge circuit. A permanent magnet high frequency generator, directly coupled to

4810-593: Is situated on a 410-acre (1.7 km ) site. Coal for the power station, like Cottam , came from the Welbeck colliery at Meden Vale until it closed in May 2010. The station's other main supplier of coal, Thoresby Colliery , closed in 2015. The station connected to the National Grid, like most similar sized coal power stations, via a transformer and substation at 400kV. The chimneys of West Burton Power Station are 200 metres (660 ft) tall. The four boilers have single divided furnaces and assisted circulation. Each has

4940-416: Is supported at its corners, each of the supports taking about 203.2 tonnes (200 tons) in weight. The overall weight of the frame and condenser structure is some 2,235 tonnes (2,200 tons) of which 1,422 tonnes (1,400 tons) is supported on the bottom of the condenser by the mounting springs. The condensers were fabricated on site by English Electric from sub assemblies and welded to the bridge beams supporting

5070-660: Is the transmission system operator for the whole GB grid. At the end of the 19th century, Nikola Tesla established the principles of three-phase high-voltage electric power distribution while he was working for Westinghouse in the United States. The first use of this system in the United Kingdom was by Charles Merz , of the Merz & McLellan consulting partnership, at his Neptune Bank Power Station near Newcastle upon Tyne . This opened in 1901, and by 1912 had developed into

5200-537: Is the case with 'net zero'). In 2020 about 40% of the grid's energy came from burning natural gas, and it is not expected that anywhere close to sufficient green power will be available to run the grid on zero carbon in 2025, except perhaps on the very windiest days. Analysts such as Hartree Solutions considered in 2020 that getting to 'net zero' by 2050 would be challenging, even more so to reach 'net zero' by 2033. There has, however, been sustained progress towards carbon neutrality , with carbon intensity falling by 53% in

5330-624: The North American power transmission grid the Eastern and Western Interconnections were directly connected, and was at the time largest synchronous grid in the world, but this was found to be unstable, and they are now only DC interconnected. Interconnectors such as High-voltage direct current lines, solid-state transformers or variable-frequency transformers can be used to connect two alternating current interconnection networks which are not necessarily synchronized with each other. This provides

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5460-515: The Western Isles which have limited connectivity), Wales , and the Isle of Man . The following figures are taken from the 2005 Seven Year Statement. Total generating capacity is supplied roughly equally by renewable , gas fired, nuclear , coal fired power stations . Annual energy transmitted in the UK grid is around 300–360 TWh (1.1–1.3 EJ), with an average load factor of 72% (i.e. 3.6×10/(8,760 × 57×10). The National Grid has

5590-456: The 20 psig developed in the cooling water system, so that any leaks on the tube end plates will be supplied from the header tank. The bridge condenser Is a single surface type unit, receiving and condensing the steam discharged from the six exhausts of the three double flow LP cylinders, combined with an upper frame supporting and containing the cylinders themselves. The integrated structure, weighing about 2,280 tons in its working condition, spans

5720-514: The 275 kV systems was examined as a possible solution. However, in addition to the technical problem of high fault levels, many more lines would have been required to obtain the estimated transfers at 275 kV. As this was not consistent with the Central Electricity Generating Board's policy of preservation of amenities, a better solution was sought. Consideration was given to 400 kV and 500 kV schemes: both gave

5850-581: The ENTSO-E in 2008, over 350,000 megawatt hours were sold per day on the European Energy Exchange (EEX). Neighbouring interconnections with the same frequency and standards can be synchronized and directly connected to form a larger interconnection, or they may share power without synchronization via high-voltage direct current power transmission lines (DC ties), solid-state transformers or variable-frequency transformers (VFTs), which permit

5980-551: The Holbeach area in August 1963. By February 1964 the pylons had reached Ruskington. By July 1964, the pylons were being built near Bicker and Gosberton. By September 1964 the pylon construction had reached Burwell and Bottisham. The Burwell substation would be built by 1966. Along the route, no-one had wanted the pylons, and Kesteven and councils in Cambridgeshire had put up an immense amount of opposition. The 63 miles to Walpole, Norfolk

6110-528: The I.P. cylinder of 565 psia (38.96 bar) at 566 °C. The turbine has a design steam consumption of 6.3932 pounds per kilowatt-hour (2.9 kg/kWh), including reheating, feed heating, and boiler feed pump drive and an overall heat input of 7,543 British thermal units per kilowatt-hour (2.2 kWh/kWh), an efficiency of about 45.5%. A novel mounting arrangement was adopted for the turbo-generators. The L.P. cylinders are supported on two steel beams about 22.1 metres (72.5 ft) long, which bridge between

6240-461: The L.P. cylinder. There are over 40,000 9.144 m (30.00 ft) long, 25.4 mm (1.00 in) diameter aluminium/brass tubes in each condenser, giving an effective surface area of 27,870 m (300,000 sq ft) the equivalent of 3.9 football pitches. Operation is at 1.3 inHg with 1,023 m /min (225,000 gal of cooling water at 15.5 °C. Steam is passed to the condenser at over 963.9 t/h (2,125,000 lb/h). Since contamination of

6370-739: The National Grid are controlled from the National Grid Control Centre which is located in St Catherine's Lodge, Sindlesham , Wokingham in Berkshire. It is sometimes described as being a 'secret' location. As of 2015 the system is under consistent cyber attack . Although the transmission network in Scotland is owned by separate companies – SP Transmission plc (part of ScottishPower ) in the south, and Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc (part of Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks ) in

6500-490: The National Grid to be less 'peaky', the triad is used as the basis for extra charges paid by the users (the licensed electricity suppliers) to the National Grid: the users pay less if they can manage their usage so as to be less peaky. For each year's calculation, historic system demand metrics are analysed to determine three half-hour periods of high average demand; the three periods are known as triads. The periods are (a)

6630-645: The National Grid, the Grid Code , the Supergrid is defined as those parts of the British electricity transmission system that are connected at voltages in excess of 200 kV. The 2.2 GW undersea Western HVDC Link from Scotland to North Wales was built in 2013–2018. This was the first major non- alternating current grid link within Great Britain, although interconnectors to foreign grids already used HVDC . In 2021

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6760-542: The Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark. Since the privatisation of the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1990, the National Grid in England and Wales is owned by National Grid plc . In Scotland the grid is owned by ScottishPower Transmission in the south, and by SSE in the north. Infrastructure connecting offshore wind farms to the grid is owned by offshore transmission owners . National Grid plc

6890-508: The Republic of Ireland ( Greenlink ) is scheduled for 2024. Further potential schemes include links with Germany ( NeuConnect , 1.4 GW); Iceland ( Icelink , around 1 GW) and Morocco (3.6 GW from new battery-backed solar generation). The UK grid has access to large pumped storage systems, notably Dinorwig Power Station which can provide 1.7 GW for 5–6 hours, and the smaller Cruachan and Ffestiniog . There are also some grid batteries . As of May 2021, 1.3 GW of battery storage

7020-454: The River Trent at Marton, to pass five miles west of Lincoln, near Doddington and Navenby, to pass north of Sleaford, near Ruskington and Heckington, and further via Holbeach. Each line could carry 3,000 MW of power, or 4 million horse power. The pylons would be 158ft high, and 1,200 ft apart. The pylon line would cost £47,000 a mile. If underground, it would cost £1,140,000 per mile, and need

7150-502: The West Burton power stations from 2001, however on 9 April 2021 the company announced the sale of the 1,332 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station and 49 MW battery at West Burton B to EIG Global Energy Partners. The sale process was completed on 31 August 2021. In 1977 a British Rail Class 56 locomotive was officially named in front of the coal plant control block as 'West Burton Power Station' number 56009 later re-numbered to 56201. Prior to privatisation West Burton

7280-469: The alternator. The alternators, made by English Electric are rated at 11 Kv, 21.9 MVA, 0.8 lagging power factor and have a frequency range of 40 to 51 cycles per second. Two of the four gas turbines were later decommissioned during the 1990s. The 400 kV substation interconnects four generator circuits, six feeders, two inter-bus transformers and includes two bus coupler switches and one main busbar section. The circuits are back to back and are arranged with

7410-603: The approach road passes. The Executive partner for (ADG) was Rex Savidge and Architect in charge was John Gelsthorpe assisted by Norman Simpson. West Burton was granted an award by the Civic Trust for its "outstanding contribution to the surrounding scene". The Civic Trust , announcing the 82 awards it made in 1968 from more than 1,400 entries from 94 counties in the United Kingdom described West Burton as "an immense engineering work of great style which, far from detracting from

7540-414: The benefit of interconnection without the need to synchronize an even wider area. For example, compare the wide area synchronous grid map of Europe (in the introduction) with the map of HVDC lines (here to the right). Solid state transformers have larger losses than conventional transformers, but DC lines lack reactive impedance and overall HVDC lines have lower losses sending power over long distances within

7670-407: The coal can be passed to stock via a boom stacker or direct to the boiler house. There are seven belt weighers installed in the conveyor system, to enable checks to be made on the coal quantities passed to stock, re-claimed from stock and finally passed to the boiler house bunkers. The four 2,722-tonne-capacity (3,000-ton) boiler bunkers will hold enough coal for overnight operation without drawing from

7800-413: The coal store. The normal maximum consumption of each boiler is approximately 181.4 t/h (200 tons per hour). Four 17.5 MW gas turbine driven alternators were installed at the station. They supply power to the auxiliaries in the event of the grid system frequency varying outside suitable limits for the plant. A low frequency relay, which can be pre-set between 49 and 50 cycles per second, initiates

7930-417: The concrete blocks at the H.P. steam and generator ends of the sets. The fabricated condenser structure was welded directly to the underside of the L.P. frame using a pre-heated welding technique. This provides a compact arrangement of the condenser and the main set and is a major factor in the reduction of size related to the output of the machines, which is a striking feature of the turbine hall. The L.P. frame

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8060-413: The condensate by the cooling water must be avoided, a double tube plate construction has been adopted in which the condenser tubes are expanded into an extra tubeplate in addition to the one forming the side of the water box. The narrow space between the plates is filled with demineralised water, supplied from a header tank from 48.768 m (160.00 ft). This provides a pressure considerably higher than

8190-429: The conductor tubes near to the end of each coil side. The rings used to connect up the phase groups to the terminals are also water cooled, the flow through these being in parallel with the flow through the coil sides. Direct hydrogen cooling is employed in the stator terminals. The rotor forging is of nickel chromium molybdenum vanadium steel having a minimum yield point of 33.2 ton/in.2. The shaft end which connects to

8320-420: The consumer, causing a total distribution loss of about 7.7%. Losses differ significantly for customers connected at different voltages; connected at high voltage the total losses are about 2.6%, at medium voltage 6.4% and at low voltage 12.2%. Generated power entering the grid is metered at the high-voltage side of the generator transformer. Any power losses in the generator transformer are therefore accounted to

8450-518: The contract engineering for the first projects to run concurrently with the design. One of these projects was the West Burton 400 kV Indoor Substation, the first section of which was commissioned in June 1965. From 1965, the grid was partly upgraded to 400 kV, beginning with a 150-mile (240 km) line from Sundon to West Burton , to become the Supergrid . In the 2010 issue of the code that governs

8580-463: The core are divided axially by spacers into a number of radial ducts. These ducts form the gas inlet and outlet passages for the axial gas passages. Separate radial ducts feed the extreme ends of the core with cold gas to cater for the increased heating experienced at the core ends during leading power factor operation. Each coil side of the stator winding consists of rectangular copper tubes, each tube being insulated with resin-impregnated glass braid, and

8710-422: The core passes along the ‘air’ gap, together with the hot gas discharged from the outlet holes in the rotor body, to the region between the end windings and a baffle at the slipring end, and thence through one half of each axial cooler to the blower intake. After leaving the blower, the gas is passed through the other halves of the coolers and is delivered to the various inlet regions of the stator core and rotor. Gas

8840-595: The cost of these was more than offset by the saving in capital on the building. There are six roller type mills per boiler, each powered by a direct coupled 635 hp motor at 985 rpm. The coal is fed to the mills by Lopulco chain feeders with induction regulator speed controllers. Separated over-fire air (SOFA) burners were installed on all four of the station's units in 2007 to meet European Union nitrogen oxide emission legislation. The burners were installed by GE Energy . The 500 MW single shaft machines manufactured by English Electric , are arranged lengthwise along

8970-429: The country is divided into zones, each with a different tariff for generation and consumption. In general, tariffs are higher for generators in the north and consumers in the south since there is generally a north–south flow of electricity. 'Triad demand' is a metric of demand which reports retrospectively three numbers about peak demand between November and February (inclusive) each winter. In order to encourage usage of

9100-404: The coupled shafts 'hang' in a curve, which may be 12.7 mm ( 1 ⁄ 2  in) lower at the centre than at the ends, the complete generator must be adjusted with its outer end slightly higher than the end adjacent to the turbine, so that the turbine and generator coupling faces are parallel, and peripherally true before they are bolted together. This adjustment is achieved to an accuracy at

9230-447: The coupling face of 0.0127 mm (0.00050 in). Each of the four generators is designed for an output of 500 MW at 0.85 power factor with a terminal voltage of 22 kV. Hydrogen at a pressure of 60 psig, is employed for cooling the stator core and rotor conductors, the gas being in direct contact with the rotor conductors, and water is used for cooling the stator conductors. Hydrogen coolers are arranged longitudinally in

9360-564: The discrepancy between supply and demand is too great and the frequency drops too far (between 48.8 Hz down to 47.8 Hz) then the Low Frequency Demand Disconnection (LFDD) automatic cutouts progressively trigger and remove up to 60% of the customer load from the Supergrid to avoid blacking out the entire grid. Reserve services are a group of services each acting within different response times: These reserves are sized according to three factors: The English and Welsh parts of

9490-431: The entire grid because energy is consumed as it is produced. Energy is stored in the immediate short term by the rotational kinetic energy of the generators. Small deviations from the nominal system frequency are very important in regulating individual generators and assessing the equilibrium of the grid as a whole. When the grid is heavily loaded, the frequency slows, and governors adjust their generators so that more power

9620-493: The exciter shaft, acts as a pilot exciter and supplies the exciter field via a power stage magnetic amplifier which may be regulated either by manual control or by the automatic voltage regulator. The AVR is a continuously acting regulator including such features as VAR limiting, automatic follow-up of manual control, and protection against over fluxing or over exciting of the main generator. There are three stages of H.P. feed heating with six heater shells arranged in parallel pairs,

9750-433: The figure of around 0.2p/kW⋅h. Other estimates also give a figure of 0.2p/kW⋅h. However, Bernard Quigg notes: "According to the 06/07 annual accounts for NGC UK transmission, NGC carried 350TW⋅h for an income of £2012m in 2007, i. e. NGC receives 0.66p per kW hour. With two years inflation to 2008/9, say 0.71p per kW⋅h.", but this also includes generators' connection fees. In order to be allowed to supply electricity to

9880-564: The five years to 2020. The phase out of coal is progressing rapidly with only 1.6% of the UK's electricity coming from coal in 2020, compared with about 25% in 2015. 2020 saw the UK go more than two months without needing to burn any coal for electricity, the longest period since the Industrial Revolution . Figures are again from the 2005 Seven Year Statement. Although overall losses in the National Grid are low, there are significant further losses in onward electricity distribution to

10010-498: The generating company, not to the grid system. The power loss in the generator transformer does not contribute to the grid losses. In 2009–10 there was an average power flow of about 11 GW from the north of the UK, particularly from Scotland and northern England, to the south of the UK across the grid. This flow was anticipated to grow to about 12 GW by 2014. Completion of the Western HVDC Link in 2018 added capacity for

10140-431: The generator and interbus transformer connections on the power station side and the line entries on the opposite side of the substation. The current line entries are Bicker Fen-Walpole, Bicker Fen-Spalding North, Keadby 2, High Marnham, Cottam, and Keadby 1. In January 1962, there were the first plans for one of the first 400kV lines from the proposed power station, to Waltham Cross in north-east London. The line would cross

10270-414: The generator shaft comprises a shaft-mounted sleeve upon which is mounted the bladed rotor disc, a bladed stator casing, a diffuser and an inlet fairing. The stator casing and diffuser are rigidly supported from the turbine end bearing bracket. Low conductivity demineralised water is circulated through the stator windings by a pump and passes through coolers and a filter before entering the inlet manifold of

10400-424: The grid by adding 275 kV links. At its inception in 1950, the 275 kV Transmission System was designed to form part of a national supply system with an anticipated total demand of 30,000 MW by 1970. The predicted demand was already exceeded by 1960. This rapid growth led the Central Electricity Generating Board (created in 1958) to carry out a study in 1960 of future transmission needs. Considered in

10530-413: The hoppers by remotely operated paddle feeder machines. These deposit the coal on two twin deep-trough belt conveyors 1,371.6 mm (54.00 in) wide, each with a capacity of 1,361 t/h (1,500 tons per hour) at 137.16 m/min (450 ft/min). The belt conveyors feed coal via the screening and crushing plant, where it is also passed through magnetic separators, to the transfer tower. From this tower

10660-415: The hot and cold reheat circuits to the turbine. In view of the size and increased volume of pipework compared to earlier designs, special attention was paid to mounting the valve chests as close to the machine as possible to reduce the stored energy effect of overspeed. For the H.P. valves this is done without actually mounting the valves on the cylinder, thus avoiding complication of the H.P. casing. Because

10790-412: The inlet pipe to the winding. A small demineralising plant is provided to treat the water, should the conductivity of the make-up water supply be too high. The main exciter is a 3,000 rpm 3-phase machine directly coupled to the main generator shaft. Cooling is effected by a closed air ventilation circuit with pannier mounted coolers supplied with cooling water from the condensate system. The exciter output

10920-510: The largest integrated power system in Europe. The rest of the country, however, continued to use a patchwork of small supply networks. In 1925, the British government asked Lord Weir , a Glaswegian industrialist, to solve the problem of Britain's inefficient and fragmented electricity supply industry. Weir consulted Merz, and the result was the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 , which recommended that

11050-554: The load centres. West Burton 's 4 × 500 MW machines, in the Nottinghamshire coalfield near the River Trent , is an example. These developments shifted the emphasis on the transmission system from interconnection to bulk power transfers from the generation areas to the load centres, such as the anticipated transfer in 1970 of some 6,000 MW from the Midlands to the home counties . Continued reinforcement and extension of

11180-409: The market, resulting in possibility of long term contracts and short term power exchanges; and mutual assistance in the event of disturbances. One disadvantage of a wide-area synchronous grid is that problems in one part can have repercussions across the whole grid. Wide area synchronous networks improve reliability and permit the pooling of resources. Also, they can level out the load, which reduces

11310-510: The network to permit greater control during off-nominal events. As was discovered in the California electricity crisis , there can be strong incentives among some market traders to create deliberate congestion and poor management of generation capacity on an interconnection network to inflate prices. Increasing transmission capacity and expanding the market by uniting with neighbouring synchronous networks make such manipulations more difficult. In

11440-472: The north – overall control rests with National Grid Electricity System Operator. The costs of operating the National Grid System are recouped by National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) through levying of Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) charges on the users of the system. The costs are split between the generators and the users of electricity. Tariffs are set annually by NGESO, and

11570-441: The overall size of the boiler house building, which measures 259.69 m (852.0 ft) long, 44.2 m (145 ft) wide and 60.05 m (197.0 ft) high, was achieved by arranging the pulverised fuel mills in two rows between adjacent boilers instead of in a line along the length of the boiler house as usual. This meant that coal conveyors at right angles to the trunk conveyor had to be installed for each line of mills, but

11700-488: The period of peak system demand, and (b) two other periods of highest demand which are separated from peak system demand and from each other by at least ten days. For power stations, the chargeable demand is only the net site demand (per CUSC rule 14.17.10), so when the site is net exporting (i.e. total metered generation at that site exceeds total separately metered station demand), that separately metered station demand shall not be liable for demand TNUoS charges in relation to

11830-428: The permanently coupled 29.03-tonne-capacity (32 tons) hopper wagons, the bottoms of which are opened by automatic lineside gear while the train moves through at 0.8 km/h (0.50 mph). The four W & T Avery Ltd. weighbridges, two on each of the two rail tracks using electronic weighing heads, record the weight of the coal wagons loaded and empty and summate the total quantity of coal delivered. The coal store on

11960-514: The power station won a RoSPA President's Award in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The site is the farthest north of what was a series of power stations in the Trent valley , being 3.5 miles (5.6 km) downstream of the now-closed Cottam power stations . As of September 2022, it was one of only three coal-fired power stations left in the UK and was required to close before 2024, with generation on two units initially planned to cease on 30 September 2022. Due to

12090-574: The project were Merz & McLellan and the main contractor on site was Alfred McAlpine with steelwork designed by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company . The station was the first 2,000 MW power station to be constructed in the United Kingdom and was visited by the then chairman of the CEGB Christopher Hinton on 27 November 1964 the instigator of the new 500 MW units. It subsequently attracted visitors from around

12220-403: The regional network flows and the operating frequency of the grid. Where neighbouring grids, operating at different frequencies, need to be interconnected, a frequency converter is required. HVDC Interconnectors , solid-state transformers or variable-frequency transformers links can connect two grids that operate at different frequencies or that are not maintaining synchronism. Inertia in

12350-486: The required generating capacity, allow more environmentally-friendly power to be employed; allow more diverse power generation schemes and permit economies of scale. Wide area synchronous networks cannot be formed if the two networks to be linked are running at different frequencies or have significantly different standards. For example, in Japan, for historical reasons, the northern part of the country operates on 50 Hz, but

12480-430: The site has a maximum capacity of 1,814,000 tonnes (2 million tons) at 9.14 m (30.0 ft) deep, it is used to deposit all surplus coal and to build up stocks. There are also two fly ash siding (E & F) and two oil sidings (K & L). West Burton Power Station was used as a testing ground for the merry-go-round train system in 1965 which would be introduced at all 500 MW and above power stations. During

12610-815: The site of the deserted medieval village of West Burton . Construction began in 1961 by the Northern Project Group a department within the CEGB the construction was overseen by resident engineer Douglas Derbyshire who had recently completed the build of the nearby High Marnham Power Station . In a bid to combine efforts at the design and construction stages the Boiler and Turbo-generator plant were replicated at Fiddlers Ferry power station located in Cuerdley , Cheshire , in North West England . The consulting engineers for

12740-402: The slots adjacent to the pole centres, which contain five. The generator is ventilated by cold gas fed to a number of radial ducts at the slipring end of the core, which communicate with the axial vent holes in the core and stator teeth. After passing through the axial holes the gas is discharged into the ‘air’ gap through further radial ducts at the turbine end of the core. The gas discharged from

12870-460: The southern part uses 60 Hz. That makes it impossible to form a single synchronous network, which was problematic when the Fukushima Daiichi plant melted down. Also, even when the networks have compatible standards, failure modes can be problematic. Phase and current limitations can be reached, which can cause widespread outages. The issues are sometimes solved by adding HVDC links within

13000-417: The starting operation on the gas turbines; normally the setting is 49.5 cycles per second. The load is automatically taken over by the gas turbines and the auxiliary plant is isolated from the grid supply, provided the system frequency has by then fallen to approximately 48 cycles per second. The gas turbine generators can also be used for augmenting the station output at peak load via the unit transformers. If

13130-409: The station becomes completely isolated from the grid system, the gas turbines are used to restart any main units that are shut down. This process is known as a black start and is tested annually. Each gas turbine unit consists of an English Electric type EA 3,000 r.p.m. expansion turbine employing two Rolls-Royce Avon type RA29 Stage 6A (1533–51) engines as gas generators, and is directly coupled to

13260-436: The station demand at triad. Triad dates in recent years were: This is the main source of income which National Grid uses to cover its costs for high-voltage long-distance transmission (lower voltage distribution is charged separately). The grid also charges an annual fee to cover the cost of generators, distribution networks and large industrial users connecting. Triad charges encourage users to cut load at peak periods; this

13390-552: The station from campaign group The Twentieth Century Society , arguing significant pieces of Britain's industrial heritage such as West Burton A should be preserved. After it was first listed as a candidate in June 2021, on 3 October 2022 the site was announced as the planned location for the first nuclear fusion power plant to be built under the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme. A £600 million 1,270MWe CCGT power station, which runs on natural gas ,

13520-465: The stations' early life in the 1970s and under the merry-go-round train agreement with British Rail and the National Coal Board , no deliveries were made at the weekends. The coal store has capacity for over three months' operation of the station. When discharged from the railway wagons, the coal drops into the hoppers immediately under the track, where it is scooped out evenly along the length of

13650-540: The stator core and rotor winding are cooled by hydrogen at 60 psig circulated by a blower on the shaft. To reduce the transport weight, each stator consists of an outer gas tight enclosure, which carries the hydrogen coolers and the end brackets which support the rotor bearings, and an inner stator comprising the magnetic core and windings. The stator core is built with laminations of cold rolled grain-oriented sheet steel 0.013 inches (0.033 cm) thick, insulated from each other with insuline. The number of segments per circle

13780-402: The steam is exhausted to the de-aerator at 52 psia. (3.585 bar) at 144 °C. The pump is a six-stage centrifugal unit with a capacity of 1588 t/h (3,500,000 lb/h). Two 50 per cent duty start-up and standby feed pumps, electrically driven, are also provided. The eight cooling towers, built by Davenport Engineering Ltd. of Bradford , have a capacity of 30,690,000 L/h (6,750,000 gal/h ) and

13910-400: The study, together with the increased demand, was the effect on the transmission system of the rapid advances in generator design resulting in projected power stations of 2,000–3,000 MW installed capacity. These new stations were mostly to be sited where advantage could be taken of a surplus of cheap low-grade fuel and adequate supplies of cooling water, but these sites did not coincide with

14040-535: The then chairman of the CEGB Walter Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring announced a 2 x 900MW coal-fired power station fitted with flue-gas desulfurisation (FGD) to be known as 'West Burton B' would be built on the site. The plan was abandoned just before privatisation. In March 2021, EDF confirmed that West Burton A would cease generation on 30 September 2022. However, in June 2022, EDF agreed to defer closure of two units at West Burton A power station by

14170-403: The transmission system, generators must be licensed (by BEIS) and enter into a connection agreement with NGET which also grants Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC). Generators contribute to the costs of running the system by paying for TEC, at the generation TNUoS tariffs set by NGET. This is charged on a maximum-capacity basis. In other words, a generator with 100 MW of TEC who only generated at

14300-573: The triad periods multiplied by the tariff for their zone. Therefore, (as of 2007) a customer in London with a 1 MW average demand during the three triad periods would pay £19,430 in TNUoS charges. Wide area synchronous grid A wide area synchronous grid (also called an " interconnection " in North America ) is a three-phase electric power grid that has regional scale or greater that operates at

14430-524: The tubes are transposed within the coil length by the Roebel method to minimise stray copper losses. Inlet and outlet manifolds are arranged at opposite ends of the windings and all coil sides are fed in parallel from these. The water connections between the manifolds and coil sides are made with flexible hoses of insulating material. The electrical connections between coil sides consist of flexible copper straps, bolted and sweated to contact blocks which are brazed to

14560-403: The turbine hall, which is 259.08 m (850.0 ft) long by 39.624 m (130.00 ft) wide by 26.060 m (85.50 ft) high. The overall length of each machine is 49.53 m (162.5 ft). The generators are rated at 500 MW, 22 kV at 0.85 power factor. Steam conditions at the H.P. turbine stop valve are 2,300 psig (158.6 bar) at 566 °C with a single reheat stage to

14690-418: The turbine is deferentially tempered to give additional strength to withstand the severe forces which could be applied under fault conditions on the generator. The first three critical speeds are arranged to be below the running speed. The hydrogen-cooled rotor conductors are formed from silver-bearing hard drawn copper tube. Two tubes in parallel form one conductor and there are six conductors per slot except for

14820-507: The two concrete foundation blocks supporting the HP and IP cylinder and the generator, hence the name bridge condenser. About two-thirds of the weight is transferred to the basement floor through a mattress of springs. The circulating water used as a cooling medium passes through 40,740 tubes arranged in six groups, each of two tube bundles, with each group lying directly below a turbine exhaust. The single shaft five cylinder impulse-reaction turbine has

14950-414: The two pump houses. Each pump has a capacity of 545,500 L/min (120,000 gal/min ) with a net generated head of 23.16 m (76.0 ft). Make-up water from the river Trent is pumped by four 45,460 L/m (10,000 gal/min ) vertical centrifugal pumps). Coal is supplied via north- and south-facing junctions off the adjacent Manchester and Cleethorpes railway line. Coal arriving at the station is discharged from

15080-436: The upper part of the stator frame and the hydrogen is circulated by an axial flow blower mounted on the turbine end of the rotor shaft. The stator is of two-part construction, the core and windings being assembled in a skeleton inner frame threaded into the outer stator frame at site. The weight of the heaviest part, the inner stator, is 194 tons. The generator stator winding is water cooled at 2.155 m /min (474 gal/min) and

15210-538: The visual scene, acts as a magnet to the eye from many parts of the Trent Valley". The plant was originally operated by the CEGB and then run by National Power after privatisation, until April 1996 when it was bought by the Eastern Group which became TXU Europe . In November 2001 when the price of electricity was low, TXU Europe sold the station to London Electricity Group for £366 million. EDF Energy operated

15340-468: The volatile energy market associated with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the United Kingdom Government agreed with plant owners EDF Energy that the remaining two generating units would be available for use for 6 months beyond the 30 September 2022 closure date, in order to provide supplies over the winter period. The plant ended generation on 31 March 2023. The station is built on

15470-408: The winding. After passing through the winding the water returns to the pump through a degassing tank. This is basically a sudden enlargement in the pipe, which causes the water velocity to decrease and so enables any bubbles of gas to be collected in a small chamber fitted with a float-operated alarm switch. A header tank, which contains enough water for a complete refill of the system, is connected into

15600-559: The world including Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Iran who was escorted around the site by Robert Laycock the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire on 6 March 1965. West Burton number one unit, commissioned in September 1966, was the second 500MW generating unit to be ordered and go into full commercial operation. A further three units were commissioned at the site in 1967. The station

15730-579: Was a coal-fired power station , one of the Hinton Heavies which was commissioned in 1966 and operated until 2023. West Burton B on the other hand, is a combined cycle gas turbine power station, commissioned in 2013. West Burton A is owned by EDF Energy , while West Burton B is owned and operated by Totalenergies. The station has been accredited as an Investor in People since 1995, and certified to ISO 14001 for its environmental management system since 1996;

15860-520: Was built next to the coal-fired station. Construction by the Kier Group started in January 2008. It was built on land originally allocated for a proposed 1,800 MW West Burton 'B' coal power station that was to have been built in the 1980s. Privatisation of the electricity industry in 1990 cancelled this scheme. The power station was commissioned in 2013, and supplies electricity to around 1.5 million homes. A new 12 mi (19 km) gas pipeline

15990-656: Was built to link to the National Transmission System at Grayingham in Lincolnshire. Around 1,000 people were involved in the construction. The plant consists of three 430 MW gas turbines each with a heat recovery steam generator . Activists from the No Dash For Gas group protesting against the building of the gas plant pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated trespass in February 2013. EDF discontinued

16120-416: Was completed in September 1933, ahead of schedule and on budget. It began operating in 1933 as a series of regional grids with auxiliary interconnections for emergency use. Following the unauthorised but successful short term parallelling of all regional grids by the night-time engineers on 29 October 1937, by 1938 the grid was operating as a national system. The growth by then in the number of electricity users

16250-584: Was officially opened on 25 April 1969 by the Minister of Power Roy Mason , Sir Stanley Brown the then Chairman of the CEGB , Arthur Hawkins Director of the Midlands Region and Douglas Pask director of the Northern Project Group. It was a lavish ceremony with a large marquee and band present. The principal architects for the buildings were Rex Savidge and John Gelsthorpe of Architects' Design Group (ADG) from Baker Street, Nottingham . Heliodon modelling

16380-567: Was operating in the United Kingdom, with 16 GW of projects in the pipeline potentially deployable over the next few years. A 100 MW power Chinese-financed plant at Minety , Wiltshire was reported to be the largest in Europe when it opened in July 2021; when a 50 MW extension is completed, the site's storage capacity will be 266 MWh. National Grid is responsible for contracting short term generating provision to cover demand prediction errors and sudden failures at power stations. This covers

16510-675: Was opted in to the UK Transitional National Plan, placing limits on its sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides and particulates emissions to a period up to the end of 2020: part of the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU which superseded the Large Combustion Plant Directive 2001/80/EC. Under the EU regulations West Burton was classed as two power plants due to the fact of having two chimneys. In 1988

16640-671: Was the fastest in the world, rising from three quarters of a million in 1920 to nine million in 1938. The grid proved its worth during the Blitz , when South Wales provided power to replace lost output from Battersea and Fulham power stations. The grid was nationalised by the Electricity Act 1947 , which also created the British Electricity Authority . In 1949, the British Electricity Authority decided to upgrade

16770-536: Was the last CEGB power station to be awarded the Christopher Hinton trophy in recognition of good housekeeping . The station had a Discovery Centre to educate local school children and also has the oldest mound of FGD gypsum in the UK, part of an experiment set up by CEGB scientists in 1988. In the summer of 1998 Station Manager Derrek Wells was awarded the OBE for his services to the power industry. West Burton

16900-448: Was used to determine the visual and psychological impact of the structures to be used on site due to their scale. This created a Zone of Visual Influence (ZVI) a system pioneered by the CEGB for the creation of future 2,000 MW power stations in the 1960s. The tower layouts exploit line and lozenge formations. The opposite pairs of the lozenge group were coloured light and dark to avoid tendency of shapes to coalesce when viewed at

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