Barry

Barry

The Barry power station is located eight miles west of Cardiff.

Centrica acquired Barry from AES Corporation in August 2003 for £39.7m. Construction on site started in 1996, the first firing of the turbine occurred in May 1998 and the plant was made available for commercial operation in September 1998.

The plant has an output of 230MW.

Thirty-one staff work at the plant. Although it is owned by Centrica Barry Limited, they are employed by Centrica Energy Operations Limited, a wholly owned Centrica subsidiary, which operates and maintains the plant.

Technical specifications

PPC

Location

Sully Moors Road, Sully, Vale of Glamorgan. CR64 5YU

Date acquired by Centrica

July 2003

Fuel

The station burns gas.

Running regime

The power station offers flexible operations, typically starting up and shutting down on a daily basis thereby meeting the demands of Centrica’s customers in a challenging market.

Total amount of electricity generated in 2006

521 GWh

Air emissions

Pollutant 2004 Total Mass Emissions per annum (Tonnes):
Nitrogen oxides 1.7 tonnes
Sulphur hexafluoride n/a
Methane 15.5 tonnes
Carbon dioxide 237,008 tonnes

Water management

Barry Power Station uses an air-cooled condenser to eliminate the need for cooling water. The town's water is used to provide make-up water for the boiler and steam turbine. This water is treated by the power station to removal harmful minerals that would damage the equipment at the station.

Barry Power Station has planned a comprehensive ground survey of its drainage systems to ensure integrity of system and the protection of controlled waters.

Community

Barry Power Station, through the Barry Foundation, at the time of build, donated £600,000 to the Bananal Island Project in Brazil. This project involved the reforestation of indigenous trees. In recognition of its donation, the first six million tons of carbon to be sequestered from the air by the forest will be accredited to Barry Power Station. It is estimated that if Barry Power Station were to operate at max load for its estimated life cycle it would produce less than 6 million tons of carbon.