The combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT), capable of generating 400 MW of electricity, has been offline since a major incident in March this year when a failing turbine blade caused “significant damage” to the plant.
A total of 160 people were involved in repairing the turbine, which included removing the 90 tonne rotor and transporting it back to the manufacturers in France.
Head of RWE Generation in the UK, Kevin Nix said: “I’m really pleased to see Great Yarmouth back in service following its major breakdown and in time to contribute to keeping the lights on this winter.”
“The contribution of our partner GE in providing an innovative and cost effective repair solution for the gas turbine was vital, it would have been almost impossible to return the station to service due to the very poor market conditions for gas generation that we face.”
RWE Generation UK’s distributed assets group manager, Kerry Nesbit said “We are now ready to provide flexible essential electricity generation to National Grid for the coming winter.”
Great Yarmouth’s return to service will be a welcome addition to the UK’s power generation mix following recent concerns over the heightened risk of blackouts this winter as the news of tight margins of just 6 per cent was released in National Grid’s winter outlook earlier this week.