King’s Lynn power station goes live after major redevelopment
Commissioning of the 386MW gas fired power station in Norfolk drew to a close yesterday (Monday 18th November), marking the culmination of nearly three years work since the start of construction in 2017.
The project breathed new life into the formerly mothballed site. It involved the installation of a new gas turbine and the refurbishment of the power station.
"I’d like to congratulate everyone involved with the King’s Lynn project. This is an excellent example of our team’s ability to deliver complex engineering projects with high quality results. The speed and flexibility of King’s Lynn supports the transition to a renewable led energy system, helping balance the grid during gaps in generation caused by the intermittency of renewables. It does so as efficiently as possible which is vital as we transition to a low carbon energy system."
Jorge Pikunic, Managing Director of Centrica Business Solutions
"We’re delighted to see the King’s Lynn plant back up and running following significant redevelopment. The upgraded plant will deliver cleaner, reliable energy thereby supporting the transition to a low carbon future."
Wesley Tivnen, Managing Director Power Generation, Siemens Gas and Power
"Commissioning is the final milestone in the completion of a project, so it’s a great achievement for the team. We are very pleased with the technical performance of the plant which has exceeded design targets."
Adam Kennard, Site Generation Manager, Centrica
King’s Lynn is capable of producing enough power to meet the needs of 400,000 households, almost all the homes in Norfolk.
The project was developed by Centrica in partnership with Siemens.
Michael Pullan, Senior Communications Manager
Notes
Centrica Business Solutions is part of Centrica plc, a leading international energy services and solutions provider that is founded on a 200-year heritage of serving people. Our focus is on providing energy supply, energy optimisation and services and solutions for businesses. Through our business services and solutions, we help businesses to gain competitive advantage from energy, building intelligent end-to-end energy solutions that power performance and resilience. This includes over 5,500 distributed energy and power sites and over 600MW of solutions capacity under management. We also provide energy trading services, and supply energy through Direct Energy in North America, British Gas in the UK, and Bord Gàis Energy in Ireland.
Originally commissioned in 1997, King’s Lynn was mothballed in 2012 when the plant became uneconomic to run.
The refurbishment of King’s Lynn power station will underpin 35 permanent and well paid jobs.
The plant will participate in wholesale energy markets. In addition, it will participate in balancing and capacity markets and provide ancillary services to the grid operator.