Chapter 5 of the 10-year Gas Statement completed by National Grid in 2015 details the current and future projects that will be funded in order to meet the 31st December 2023 targets set by the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).
The IED sets greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions thresholds that UK-based companies must respect to be fully compliant with industry standards. The National Grid reviewed and assessed its current compressor fleet and proposed a set of investment options to Ofgem, the government regulator for gas and electricity markets in Great Britain, under the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) and Large Combustion Plants (LCP) directives.
Aside St Fergus, Peterborough and Huntingdon sites will be major pumping station upgrades constituting the IPPC directive.
The Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies completed by Costain Group in IPPC Phase 3 concluded that electrically driven compressors were not viable at Peterborough but remained a possibility at Huntingdon. However, the most cost-effective technique at reducing emissions identified during the tender process was to build three equally sized 15.3MW gas turbine units at both sites.
One unit has already been replaced at each site as part of Phase 3 and two additional new units will be installed simultaneously at both sites as part of Phase 4.
The network flows analyses revealed that replacing all existing gas compression units was necessary to meet existing and future customers’ needs and to maintain gas flows and pressures in the system during winter time when both compression units are often required to operate together. Furthermore, the possibility to use both stations interchangeably allows for more flexibility for maintenance and unplanned outages.
With a one-year delay, the National Grid has finally named top engineering contractor Costain to complete Phase 4 of the IPPC directive, through the implementation of engineering designs as well as the installation and commissioning of the remaining gas compression units by the end of 2021.
Costain, also named “Contractor of the decade” by New Civil Engineer (NCE) has a lead role in developing the pioneering carbon capture innovation “Next Generation Carbon Capture Technology” expected to reduce UK CO2 emissions by 95%.
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If the same commissioning team are still there since 2011, then it won't be completed on time. Thorough and extensive checks of competencies and experience would have weeded them out years ago, however, sub contractors and client inter personal relationships are never a good thing.
Interesting article. I worked on the installation of three gas turbine driven compressors at Brighouse Bay in Scotland for Sofregaz Entrepose of France.The job was for BGE (Irish Gas Board) and I was on the commissioning team. We compressed the gas up to 140 Bar to pump across to Cork, subsea. I was later in charge of 'looking after' another 6 engines/compressors. Good projects to be on.