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Fifteen CIOB members attended the above event which is located next to Eynesbury and St Neots. The evening was hosted by Maurice and Ron who have over 100 years experience in the power industry and provided a real insight into the subject of Power Stations. Little Barford is one of a new generation of highly efficient, gas burning stations owned and operated by nPower – part of the RWE nPower group. 

Despite the stations size and complexity it runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year with a staff of just 50. The actual control room is run by only 3 staff at a time working shift systems.  The new station sits on the site of the old farmer coal fired station, which had 2 cooling towers and A and B stations. It is powered by natural gas and uses the latest generating technology – combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) to produce electricity in an environmentally friendly way.

Maurice and Ron gave a very informative presentation with a new power point guided walkway through the operation of the power station and all the associated buildings and equipment before we went out on site. The original gas turbines are to be replaced in 2012 to increase efficiency of the station. The power produced at the station is 440KW by gas turbine and 224 by steam giving combined total of 664KW. This type of station runs at 51-54% efficiency compared with coal at 35% and is much cleaner.

The visitors then had a fully conducted tour of the site to see for themselves the details given to them in the presentation. The control room was very interesting and the team on duty answered their many questions. They were extremely lucky to get on the platforms off the turbines and get the full effect of heat generated around 100°c. All areas were accessible on the tour which made it more interesting to everyone.

Just a note on construction methods, the new generation power stations can be fully operational within 30 months, nuclear stations take 6-8 years to build and have a much longer lead in period to get all necessary permissions with 8-10 years as a general rule of thumb.

The Bedfordshire Centre visitors gave a vote of thanks to Maurice and Ron for being excellent and informative guides throughout the evening.