Immingham power station

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Immingham power station is an operating power station of at least 1280-megawatts (MW) in Immingham, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Immingham power station	Immingham, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom	53.63779, -0.23674 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the power station.

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Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):

• Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit B: 53.63779, -0.23674

Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name	Status	Fuel(s)	Capacity (MW)	Technology	CHP	Start year	Retired year
Unit 1	operating	gas	375	combined cycle	yes	2004	–
Unit 2	operating	gas	375	combined cycle	yes	2004	–
Unit 3	operating	gas	530	combined cycle	yes	2009	–
Unit B	pre-construction	gas	299	gas turbine	no	2024	–

CHP is an abbreviation for Combined Heat and Power. It is a technology that produces electricity and thermal energy at high efficiencies. Coal units track this information in the Captive Use section when known.

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name	Owner	Parent
Unit 1	VPI Immingham	Vitol SA [100.0%]
Unit 2	VPI Immingham	Vitol SA [100.0%]
Unit 3	VPI Immingham	Vitol SA [100.0%]
Unit B	VPI Immingham	Vitol SA [100.0%]

Background

The £350m plant, originally owned by ConocoPhillips, is sited within the Humber Refinery, providing electricity and heat for the refinery's processes. Excess steam goes to the neighbouring Lindsey Oil Refinery with excess electricity exported to the National Grid.

The power station is situated on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, north of the town of Immingham. Its generating capacity of 730 megawatts made it Europe's largest CHP plant. The station has been operated by energy company ConocoPhillips since it opened in 2004. The station was sold to Vitol on July 23, 2013.

Plans for the power station began in 1998, when ways to provide power for both refineries were investigated. Due to the low price of electricity when the designs for the station began in 2004, the plant would have not been economically viable unless tax-incentives were given by the UK government. These were in the form of exemption from the UK Climate Change Levy and greater offsets against tax for the plant's depreciation. It was opened on November 1 2004 by Margaret Beckett.

In October 2006, ConocoPhillips approved a £210m extension of the plant to produce 1,180MW. The new Phase II plant is expected to be opened in the summer of 2009, producing an extra 450MW. It will consist of one 285MWe gas turbine, one HRSG and a 200MWe steam turbine.

The power station trades as Immingham CHP LLP.

VPI has proposed a new 299 MW open-cycle gas turbine at the site (unit B). In 2021 the proposed unit B is listed in the T-4 Capacity Market 2024-2025 final auction results with a 2024 delivery date. This would qualify it for government subsidies to guarantee electricity supply. Its existing units are also in the final auction results.

Specification

Two 260MW General Electric Frame 9 (9001FA) gas turbines generate electricity with the exhaust gas from each heating a Nooter Eriksen heat recovery steam generator. The steam from each these HRSGs transfers to a steam turbine. The two 115MWe steam turbines are built by Franco Tosi Meccanica based in Legnano in the Italian province of Milan. There are also two auxiliary boilers. Each boiler can provide 50% of the steam needs for each refinery. It normally exports around a minimum of 150MW to the National Grid, but this can be increased depending on the needs of the Grid and the two refineries. The plant is about 70% thermally efficient. The refinery operations need around 25MW of electricity. Each steam turbine uses a maximum of 300 tonnes of steam per hour. Around 190 tonnes per hour of steam goes to the Humber Refinery, and around 160 tonnes per hour goes to the Lindsey Refinery.

Carbon Capture and Storage Bid

The Immingham power station has been proposed by ConocoPhillips as the site for a Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration plant. In a presentation on behalf of ConocoPhillips, Cal Cooper noted that there are approximately 80 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions within 50 miles, approximately 14% of UK emissions. He identified 15 million tonnes of liquid 15 million tonnes of capacity which could be transported by a 28" pipeline via a new pipeline to to depleted gas reservoir.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of gas-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.