The engineering marvel has finished its working life at the power station and will be replaced with more efficient Siemens turbines as part of a £100 million steam turbine modernisation project.
The unique collaboration between Siemens Energy, Drax and Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums to showcase the first steam turbine of this size to the public anywhere in the world has been years in the making.
Weighing in at 25 tonnes, the steam turbine is part of the UK’s historic first 660 megawatt (MW) steam turbine generating sets – the largest in the UK. Its return to Tyneside, where it was designed and made in 1967, marks the first stage of an exciting collaboration which will celebrate the achievements of Tyneside’s continuing engineering prowess at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum. Until space in the Museum is ready the turbine will be kept at the Regional Museums Store at Beamish. There it will be on view to visitors, in the company of other iconic examples of the North East’s rich scientific and industrial history.
As part of the multi-million pound contract with Drax, Siemens is helping to cut the station’s CO2 emissions by five per cent – or one million tonnes a year - the equivalent of taking more than a quarter of a million cars off the road. Replacing the station’s high and low pressure turbines will take its overall efficiency close to 40 per cent and represents the largest steam turbine modernisation project in UK history.
Carl Ennis, Managing Director of Siemens Energy Service Fossil in Newcastle comments: “The refurbishment of the Drax machines illustrates the continuing role of world-leading engineering expertise on Tyneside in meeting the demands for ‘greener’ energy. The latest partnership with Drax and Discovery Museum will give the public a unique insight into how these local engineers continue to meet modern challenges in the power generation industry and how science and technology continues to impact our lives.”
Dating back to 1967, the 660 MW Parsons turbines are the most powerful high speed (3000 revs/min) turbine-generators which Parsons designed and built in the UK before Siemens acquired the business in 1997. Drax was the first power station to commission 660 MW sets in the UK.
Siemens Chief Turbine Engineer, Geoff Horseman worked alongside the original turbine designers from the 1960s and manages the company’s history archive. He comments that: “The turbine upgrade programme at Drax presented Siemens with a rare opportunity as none of the Parsons 660 MW turbines have been upgraded to this extent before. We couldn’t think of a better final resting place than the Discovery Museum to showcase the amazing engineering heritage that we have in the North East.”
John Clayson, Keeper of Science and Industry for Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums comments: “Discovery Museum is delighted to be working in partnership with Drax and Siemens on this project. Day in and day out for more than 35 years the huge Newcastle-designed and built turbine generators at Drax have provided the power that keeps our homes, offices and streets lit, and our factories in production. Members of the public generally don’t have the chance to see what a large turbine looks like and appreciate the enormous advances in size, power and efficiency that have taken place in the last 100 years. The Drax turbines are visually impressive, and this project will provide an excellent showcase of large power generation turbine technology alongside the pioneering marine steam turbine powered vessel Turbinia.”
Siemens is working closely with Drax to dismantle, transport, create display rigs, install the turbine parts and provide labour and engineering advice throughout the project. The original design and manufacturing records for the units have also been preserved and Siemens’ engineering employees will design the drive shaft of a large bladed wheel.
The transportation of the turbines was a logistical challenge involving riggers and cranes for unloading and positioning after being dismantled and placed on to pallets.
Steve Austin, Turbine Engineer, Drax was set the challenge and says: “Despite being a complex and demanding task manoeuvring a 25 tonne piece of steel on to the back of a lorry, we are very proud to be able to contribute such an important and impressive piece of engineering to the Discovery Museum. The steam turbine modernisation project will not only save 1 million tonnes of CO2, it has given everyone the chance to view a piece of living history and we look forward to seeing the turbine on display.”
The turbine made the 120-mile journey from Drax to Beamish today and goes on show to the public at the Discovery Museum from mid-2010.
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Notes to Editors:
About Siemens in the UK:
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 167 years ago and now employs 16,915 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £4.2 billion. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
About Drax Power Limited:
Drax Power Limited is the owner of Drax Power Station, the largest, cleanest and most efficient coal fired power station in the UK. The output capacity from the station’s six generators is 4,000MW. At current output levels it supplies some 7% of the UK’s electricity needs.
About Discovery Museum:
Discovery Museum started life in July 1934 as the Newcastle Municipal Museum of Science and Industry, the first UK science museum outside London. Today our displays respond to the diverse lifestyles of 21st century Tyneside. They acknowledge the ongoing scientific and engineering prowess of the region and reflect the continuing relevance of our social and industrial heritage.
Discovery Museum is one of Britain's most popular regional museums. We welcome over 440,000 visitors every year from countries all over the world, including many tourists and people visiting friends and relatives; 20,000 children visit in school parties. Admission to Discovery Museum is free. www.twmuseums.org.uk/discovery
The Museum is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle City Council.
For more Information, contact:
Lynn Hepple
Communications Manager - Siemens Plc
Tel: +44 (0)191 495 3261
Mobile: +44 (0)7921 246 306
Email: lynn.hepple@siemens.com
Melanie Wedgbury/Rachael Hudson
Drax Power Limited
Tel: 01757 618381
Emma Pybus
Communications Officer – Discovery Museum
Tel. +44 (0)191 277 2309
Email: emma.pybus@twmuseums.org.uk
Siemens, Drax Power, Discovery Museum Project Background:
In the mid-1960s, the Central Electricity Generating Board decided to build a new power station at Drax in Yorkshire with a unit size of 660 MW, the largest turbine size specified in the UK. The station was intended to contain six machines to give an overall rating of 4,000 MW which would make it the largest coal-fired power station in Europe and capable of providing around 10% of the UK’s power requirements from a single site. Three units were ordered initially then a further three machines were ordered in the mid-1970s.
This was the culmination of a programme of rapid growth in the size of turbine generators to meet the UK’s power needs. Between 1950 and 1965 approximately, turbine sizes had grown from 60 MW to the size proposed for Drax of 660 MW. The plan was successful and Drax has met its targets achieving various efficiency and output records over the many years the station has been in service.
The station is still a key part of the UK’s electricity network and Drax is presently investing to maintain the station as an efficient reliable plant which meets the environmental requirements of the current day. As part of this investment, new HP (high pressure) and LP (low pressure) turbines are being installed which release the original turbine rotors and casings and provide an opportunity for one of the HP turbines to be retained now by the Discovery Museum for public display. This is the first time that a turbine of this class has been placed in a facility open to the public anywhere in the world.
The turbine generators for Drax were designed and manufactured by CA Parsons which is now part of Siemens Energy. Just prior to the Drax contract, in 1965, Parsons took over the turbine generator business of GEC. This meant that the engineering knowledge of two major manufacturers was combined. Drax was the first contract to be awarded after the takeover and so could benefit from the experience of both companies and use the best available features from both according to the judgement of the day. The decisions seem to have been justified as the station has been able to meet the original design life and more.
Drax was the first station to have a design life of 200,000 running hours plus 5,000 starts with fast starting and load cycling capability (previous machines were simply required to complete around 15 years service which was interpreted as 100,000 running hours). The first units have met this target having completed over 220,000 hours on the lead machines. While units of 660 MW rating were being ordered for other power stations at the same time, Drax was the first station to commission a 660 MW turbine generator set in the UK.
In 1997, Parsons became part of Siemens which again allowed the knowledge of two manufacturers to be combined. The replacement turbine modules which are being installed today take account of the operating experience gained on the Parsons fleet and utilise some of the latest blading technology developed within Siemens. The new HP turbine modules comprise a fully bladed rotor and inner casing which are fitted inside the existing HP outer casings. For this reason, the components which have been released to the Discovery Museum are the displaced original rotor and inner casing. The HP turbine rotor is a single piece forging weighing around 12 tonnes which carries 13 stages of blades. The inner casing is made in two halves from cast steel each weighing around 6.5 tonnes and carries the corresponding stationary blade rows. The casings are designed to operate with an inlet steam pressure of just over 1 ton per square inch (160 bar abs) and a maximum temperature of 565oC. The flow rate through the machine at full load is around 0.5 tonne per sec. The rated power output of 660 MW is equal to 900,000 horsepower approximately.
Discovery Museum’s relationship with C.A. Parsons Works at Heaton, now Siemens Energy, began in the 1930s when the Parsons company supported the foundation of the museum’s predecessor. This was through both the gift and loan of exhibits and also contributions to a fund in support of start-up costs. More recently, Siemens have been members of the TWAM Business Partnership, Connecting through Culture for over 10 years.
A key part of Tyneside’s rich industrial and scientific heritage is the invention of the first successful steam turbine generator in 1884 by Charles Parsons. From this small machine grew internationally renowned businesses that developed and manufactured huge steam turbines for both electric power generation and ship propulsion. The centrepiece of The Discovery Museum’s displays is the full-size vessel Turbinia of 1894, the very first ship powered by steam turbine.
o Project first phase (early 2010): a complete high pressure steam turbine rotor from Drax, which weighs 12 tonnes, will be donated by Drax along with its inner casing. An internal component from the first stage of one of the low pressure turbines is also being donated. These items will be moved by Siemens to Discovery Museum’s off-site storage and display facility, the Regional Museums Store (RMS). The RMS is run in partnership with Beamish Museum and it is at the Beamish site. The Drax components will be in the company of other iconic objects from the region’s industrial past and present, ranging from a huge Doxford ship’s engine to a Nissan Micra car, and they will be seen by approximately 60,000 people each year.
o Project second phase (later in the year): a set of final stage blades taken from one of the Drax low pressure rotors will be attached to a special slowly rotating display wheel, which will be mounted on a purpose-designed structure behind Turbinia. This will clearly demonstrate the advances in steam turbine technology between its late Victorian genesis and today. This will be seen by every visitor to Discovery Museum, currently well over 400,000 people annually.