Connahs Quay Power Station
Connah's Quay Power Station is the name of the current 1,420 MW gas-fired power station near Connah's Quay in Flintshire in North Wales. The power plant, which is situated on the south bank of the River Dee, is the modern successor to a coal-fired power station which closed in 1984 and demolished in 1992.
Construction of Connah's Quay's new replacement gas-fired station began in July 1993. The station, which is a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant was built as a turnkey project by GEC Alsthom with all principal equipment supplied by GEC Alsthom divisions. Henry Boot were sub-contracted to undertake the civil engineering and building works.
The station was completed in March 1996 and cost £580m. It was officially opened by MP Margaret Beckett, then-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on 4 July 1997. In June 1998, the station's visitor centre opened. The station was initially owned by Powergen, who became E.ON UK in 2004 and was transferred to Uniper in 2015. The station is currently Uniper's largest CCGT power station.
As Connah's Quay is a CCGT power station, it runs on natural gas. The plant has four 330 MW modules - hence four chimneys. Each module has a General Electric Frame 9FA gas turbine, a Stein Industrie heat recovery steam generator and a steam turbine; in a single-shaft layout. The gas comes via an eighteen-mile pipeline from the Point of Ayr terminal, where gas is received from Eni's (formerly BHP and originally owned by Denver-based Hamilton Oil) Celtic gas fields (Hamilton and Hamilton North) in Liverpool Bay via the Douglas Complex. The station opened soon after the gas from the field was first produced. The station employs 81 people.
