NPower News Update: Last Day of Power Station

NPower News Update: 13th August 2013 marks the last day of electricity generation at the Tilbury B Power station ending 46 years of successful operations.

The closure of the Tilbury B Station also marks the end of a combined total of 57 years of electricity generation on the Tilbury Site. The Tilbury B Power Station has played a vital role in the UK electricity production throughout the years since its opening in 1967. When opened the power station started as a 1,467MW coal-fired power plant. The station quickly established links with members of the community and throughout its life has contributed millions of pounds to the UK’s economy. From the power plants first day till now it has produced a huge total of 168.8TWh to power, homes, businesses, street lights and much more around the UK. The amount of power produced could keep just over 3 Billion light bulbs on for over a year. Tilbury B Power Station was forecast to close under the EU’s ‘Large Combustion Plant Detective’ (LCPD), giving the station only 20,000 hours of operation from 1 January 2008. In 2011 Tilbury commenced generation on 100% sustainable biomass, which as the time was a world first, for the remainder of the 20,000 hours allowed by the LCPD. This feat was even more impressive as the Station had spent the last 40 years running on coal alone. The permitted hours will run out on the 13th August 2013 at 12pm.

In 2010 the decision was made by the RWE to switch from coal to 100% biomass. The station after much consideration switched to wood biomass. Since this switch was made the Tilbury B Power Station has produced more than 10% of the UK’s total renewable energy making a significant contribution to providing low cost, low carbon energy. This was achieved by using the plants 750MW capacity for green energy. There was a second phase to this project; to provide the plant with another 10-12 years of life. To achieve this, the plant must be closed under the legislation of the LCPD and under go full redevelopment to convert the whole station to run on biomass to meet new and increasing high environmental standards. If everything went as planned for this second stage the plant would have been up and running again in roughly two years time. Unfortunately the Department for Energy and Climate Change has deemed this project ineligible and therefore the project cannot proceed. The Tilbury site itself remains an excellent power source for the UK and promises more to come in ways of power and biomass use in the near future.

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