Siemens has been awarded ‘Contractor of the Outage’ status by Drax Power Limited ("Drax"), for its outstanding performance in completing the latest turbine upgrade in a record 55 days. Unit 4 turbine upgrade outage is part of the £100 million five-year upgrade programme at Drax, the UK’s largest coal fired power station. The upgrades are integral to Drax’s long term strategy to reduce carbon emissions, which once complete will deliver an overall base load efficiency improvement of 5%, taking it towards 40% efficiency. This project will provide a saving of one million tonnes of CO2 each year – that is equivalent to taking 275,000 cars off the road!
As the original equipment manufacturer of the station’s existing turbines, Siemens has a long standing relationship of over thirty years with Drax. Siemens was awarded the main contract for the upgrades on all six steam turbine generator units in 2007. The programme, the largest steam turbine modernisation project of its kind in the UK is scheduled for completion in 2012.
Siemens provides a comprehensive design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning package for the upgrades. All parts are manufactured to the project specification at the Siemens factory in Mülheim in Germany – installation works and overall project management for the upgraded HP & LP (high pressure and low pressure) turbine units is undertaken by the local Siemens Energy Service team, headquarted in Newcastle. In addition, the outage work was completed without any accidents and remained incident free throughout.
Steve Austin, Drax’s upgrade project manager said: "the Siemens team has consistently delivered to exceptional standards and we are delighted to make this award. Turbine modernisation is a key strategic project for Drax to enable us to meet our commitments to stakeholders, to reduce emissions, improve plant performance and minimise plant down time. Siemens is helping us to meet these commitments, and we look forward to the next stage of work, and perhaps even exceeding our own targets."
Carl Ennis, divisional managing director for Siemens Energy Service Division, commenting on overall project achievements and the recent award, said: "Siemens is delighted to be helping Drax achieve its low carbon commitments. This is a key project for the business, and one which is akin to Siemens own sustainability goals. To also have our project work acknowledged through this award is a huge honour for the team. It is a great achievement and well deserved after of four years’ hard work and continuous improvement efforts by the Drax and Siemens project team."
Overall, the success of Unit 4 outage highlights Siemens continuing commitment in delivering excellence to its customers and also represents a major achievement for the business.
Siemens is working to achieve a low carbon economy. In 2009 Siemens’ products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tonnes. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin.
....................................................ENDS...........................................................................
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
For more information, contact:
Rachel Odams
PR Manager
Siemens plc
Tel. +44 (0)1276 690782
Mob: +44 (0)7808 824209
Rachel.odams@siemens.com
