Ferrybridge C Power Station – Turbines

Back to Ferrybridge main page

The turbine hall at Ferrybridge C Power Station contained 4 model TC6F136 turbo generator sets manufactured by CA Parsons. The CEGB chose Ferrybridge C to trial the new 500 MW generating units, the first of this size to be installed anywhere in the world. It took many years to iron-out all the initial problems, however the 500 MW sets proved so successful that they became the industry standard, being installed in most power stations built by the CEGB over the following 10 years.

Each turbine line consisted of five cylinders – one high pressure (HP), one intermediate pressure (IP) and three low pressure (LP) stages per unit. The 500 MW Parsons generators were rated at 22,000 volts with a phase current of 15,437 amps. The generators were cooled using hydrogen.

The Primary Boiler Feed Pump (BFP) turbines were manufactured by Parsons, and the starting/standby BFPs were manufactured by G. & J. Weir.

Ferrybridge Generating Units

List of power generating units at Ferrybridge C Power Station:

Turbine Hall Pictures

Boiler Feed Pumps

Gas Turbines

In addition to the main generating units, Ferrybridge C Power Station was built with four gas turbines which had a combined capacity of 68 MW. The gas turbines could be used to start the main power plant in an emergency, such as loss of external power supplies caused by a failure of the National Grid. They could also be used to provide additional capacity as required.

The gas turbine units were numbered C5 to C8, continuing the numbering from the C station’s main units. Gas turbine units 6 and 7 were retired in the late 1990s, reducing the capacity to 34 MW. At the heart of the gas turbines was one Rolls Royce Olympus jet engine per turbine.

Back to Ferrybridge main page