RWE, the UK’s leading electricity generator is carrying out its largest outage and maintenance campaign in 2023 on Didcot B Power Station situated near Oxford. The company is the largest operator of combined Cycle Gas turbines in the UK and manages 7GW of generation capacity alongside a large renewable portfolio.
The works at Didcot B will take place during a planned outage lasting eight weeks. During that time, the power station’s two generating modules Module 5 and Module 6 will go through extensive maintenance and upgrades to improve performance. The works will increase Module 5’s operating regime between outages by 25%. The project will also include work on the cooling towers to improve their efficiency and the station’s overall environmental performance.
The site which opened in 1997 is powered by natural gas and uses Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) to produce electricity. Didcot B can produce around 1500MW (Megawatts) enough power to meet the needs of two million households. The plant was originally designed and operated as a ‘base load’ plant – meaning it operated 24/7, however in recent years has changed operations to fit in with the market and provides flexible support to more renewable technologies on the grid system.
Didcot B Power Station is in a unique location in the grid system and plays an essential role in supporting the UK’s energy transition as it can flexibly generate, provides excellent availability and is key to ensuring security of supply across the UK. The planned upgrade will ensure the site continues to play a valuable role in supporting the UK energy mix.
Ed Jamieson Didcot Operations and Maintenance Manager added, “This years outage is one of the more complex campaigns we’ve had in recent years and the largest single outage programme in RWE in the UK this year. This investment in the plant demonstrates the importance of the site. Alongside a doubling of the onsite RWE team, we expect contractors to reach around 300 during the peak of the programme.”
“Geographically Didcot B is very well placed close to London, an area of high demand and balances energy flows west to east. Didcot B will continue to have a valuable role to play in security of supply well into the 2030s.”
RWE has a global ambition to be carbon neutral by 2040, and has ambitions to invest £15 billion in the UK in clean energy infrastructure by 2030. Having recently announced three carbon capture projects capable of delivering decarbonised, reliable, and dispatchable power generation, whilst supporting the UK’s target of decarbonising its power system by 2035.
RWE is looking for people to join the team in a range of roles and at different levels of expertise. If you want to be part of a growing green organisation see here for more information.