First unit handover reached at Staythorpe

On Friday 3 September, unit 41 at Staythorpe Power Station was officially handed over from Alstom to RWE npower.

This milestone marks the first of Staythorpes four GT26 gas turbine units to be fully commissioned and Provisional Acceptance Certificate (PAC agreement) signed off by the client.  Commissioning of the unit was completed just one minute after midnight and it was then taken over by the power stations operational team.  In addition, the team also hit full power on 2 September, achieving maximum plant output of 1.7 GW, which exceeds the original planned output of 1,650 MW.
Commissioning of the second unit will be finished in late September, meaning the plant will be capable of generating up to 860MW.  Full commercial operation of all four of the stations units is expected by the end of 2010.