Alstom hands completed Grain power station to a delighted customer

Today, marked the official handover of the new Alstom - built Combined Heat and Power Plant at Grain in Kent to the customer, EON.

The gas-fired Grain power station not only generates electricity but also supplies heat via a heatpipe to the neighbouring National Grid LNG terminal. This combined approach means that the power station is now rated as one of the most efficient in the world.

Normally the LNG plant uses gas burners to heat the liquefied gas from its chilled state back to its gaseous state so it can then be sent around the UKs national gas transmission network. But with the heatpipe, the waste hot water from the power station can warm the liquid gas instead, which reduces the amount of gas the LNG plant would usually burn in this process.

Providing power to around 1 million homes, the plant uses Alstoms advanced Gas Turbine technology, the GT26. The efficiency of the Plant is over 70%, saving more than 300,000 tons of CO2 per year. The Gas Turbine itself operates at over 1600 degrees Fahrenheit at its hottest point, which in fact is beyond the melting point of the components and so it can only operate due to advanced cooling technology.

Over 5 million man-hours were spent onsite by more than 1,500 Alstom people to complete the project, with 1.8 million hours worked without a single injury.

Alstom is proud to have contributed to the development of gas- fired power projects in the UK. In total Alstom now has 20 GT26s operating in combined cycle in the UK, making it the only country with the largest fleet of such turbines.

Alstom is looking forward to its future involvement in developing the UK power generation landscape, and on Monday, Alstom announced that it had been selected to build an 880MW combined cycle plant in Carrington, Manchester for Irish utility ESB.