Aberthaw Power Station
| Aberthaw Power Station | |
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Aberthaw "B" Power Station from the foreshore
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 Location of Aberthaw power stations
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| Country | Wales, United Kingdom |
| Location | Barry, Vale of Glamorgan |
| Coordinates | 51°23′14″N 3°24′18″W / 51.387312°N 3.404866°WCoordinates: 51°23′14″N 3°24′18″W / 51.387312°N 3.404866°W |
| Status | Operational (Aberthaw "B") |
| Construction began | 1957 |
| Commission date | 1963 (Aberthaw "A") |
| Decommission date | 1995 (Aberthaw "A") |
| Operator(s) | RWE npower |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| Secondary fuel | Biomass |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 3 x 520 MW |
| Make and model | Associated Electrical Industries |
| Nameplate capacity | 1,560 MW |
Aberthaw Power Station is a series of two coal-fired power stations on the coast of South Wales, near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. It is located at Limpert Bay, near the villages of Gileston and West Aberthaw. The current power station on the site, Aberthaw B Power Station, co-fires biomass and as of 2008 has a generating capacity of 1560 megawatts (MW).
The station is the location of a carbon capture trial system to determine whether the technology can be scaled up from lab conditions. The system consumes 1 MW.
The site of the stations was a golf course before the construction of the first station. Aberthaw "A" Power Station although recorded as first generating power on 7th February 1960, officially opened on 29th October 1963, and at the time it was the most advanced in the world. Aberthaw "B" station opened in 1971. Aberthaw "A" operated until 1995. It was subsequently demolished. Its two 425 feet (130 m) chimneys were the last section to be demolished, and this was done on Saturday, 25 July 1998. The site now has three generating units, each driven by its own Foster-Wheeler boiler. From 2006-2007 new steam turbines were fitted, allowing each unit to generate an extra 28-30 MW of power. Each unit is now rated at 520 MW.
Aberthaw burns approximately 5,000–6,000 tonnes of coal a day. The site usually burns two-thirds Welsh coal with the remainder being either foreign low-sulphur coal or biomass.
The station takes its entire coal feed stock in by rail from the Vale of Glamorgan Line, under contract to DBS.
Until its closure, the Tower Colliery in Hirwaun supplied much of the coal for Aberthaw. Coal now mainly comes from the Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme in Merthyr Tydfil, with other sources including: the Aberpergwm drift and opencast mines in the Neath Valley; and the Cwmgwrach Colliery via the Onllwyn Washery and the Tower Opencast mine based at the site of the original Tower Colliery. Further stocks are sourced from abroad, primarily Russia, and shipped in via the ports of Portbury, Avonmouth and Newport Docks.
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Wikipedia