The site was chosen by Dalton Warner Davis, the Chartered Surveyors. Construction started in September 1994. Phase 1 was completed in April 1997 with 750 MW of power, and entered commercial service in September 1997. Phase 2 was started in November 1996 and was completed in January 1999, adding 510 MW. The plant was built by Switzerland's ABB.
Ownership
It was initially run by IVO Generation Services, a company owned by Finland's Fortum. The site was owned by the consortium Humber Power Ltd, which was owned by Midland Power, ABB Energy Ventures, Tomen Group, Fortum Group, British Energy and TotalFinaElf. Humber Power Ltd was formed in 1991. On 29 May 2001, Centrica bought 60% of the power station, and with 40% owned by Chanter Petroleum from Humber Power Ltd. The entire site was then run by Centrica, under the name South Humber Power Ltd. In September 2005, the station was bought by Centrica, costing £150 million. Centrica also run Glanford Brigg Power Station and Killingholme A power station. On 21 June 2017 Centrica agreed to sell the power station to EP UK Investments Ltd as part of a deal that also saw Langage power station change hands between the two companies. EP UK Investments Ltd is fully controlled by EP Power Europe, which is 100% owned by Czech energy group EPH.
Specification
Cooling water is drawn from the River Humber. It is a CCGT type power station using natural gas. Phase 1 consists of three 166 MW gas turbines with three heat recoverysteam generators. It was designed and built by a consortium of Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie and International Combustion, and 255 MW steam turbine. Phase 2 consists of two 169 MW gas turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and a 171 MW steam turbine. It is similar to two CCGTs next-door to each other. The gas turbines used are ABB Alstom engines which normally produce 165 MW each. Each gas turbine has 72 EV burners. Exhaust gas leaves each turbine at 540C. The engines spin at 3000 rpm. The gas turbines are each connected to an ABB WY21 TEWACturbo generator. Exhaust gas from each gas turbine passes through an individual CMI heat recovery steam generator. For Phase 1 the steam passes through an ABB steam turbine connected to an ABB 50WT hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator. For Phase 2 the steam passes through an ABB steam turbine connected to an ABB WY21 TEWAC turbogenerator. The Phase 1 generator is larger than Phase 2 so needs to be cooled by hydrogen gas. The terminal voltage of the generators is 15.75 kV. Electricity enters the National Grid via a transformer at 400 kV connected to a single pylon line. The engines can generate electricity for base load or for peak load operations. Performance of the power plant is dependent on local air temperature and humidity. It has a nominal thermal efficiency of 55%, but usually produces 51%. In 2009 it produced 8,512 GWh of electricity.
