Littlebrook D Power Station, Kent

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Littlebrook D is an oil-fired power station and was built by the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board. Construction started in 1977, with the first unit commissioning underway by 1981. The 1980s still saw a potential threat from the Cold War and as such the CEGB designed Littlebrook D as a robust station with high plant redundancy meaning that the station would form a pivotal role should disaster have struck the city of London. At this time, London was still dependant on several smaller generating stations within the city itself. Due to the flexibility of the oil fired boilers, a cold unit can be synchronised onto the grid within 4 hours and the increased ability to rapidly increase or decrease load forms a significant part of what makes the station attractive on a commercial basis. Five 110,000 tonne fuel oil storage tanks are used to store the heavy fuel oil for the main units and this fuel is delivered to the site by tankers mooring at one of the sites two jetties on the River Thames. The black-start capability is facilitated by the presence of three open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) each capable of generating 35MW which is sufficient to operate the station auxiliary equipment and allow a main unit to be started. Each OCGT set incorporates two Rolls-Royce Olympus jet engines which are industrial derivatives of those that were used on the Concorde aircraft. #CEGB #Dartford #Fired #Littlebrook #London #OCGT #Oil #Olympus #Power #Rolls_Royce #Station #Stroage #tanks #Thames #TRM_DA