PETERHEAD POWER STATION

'Peterhead power station' is a multi unit station owned and operated by Scottish and Southern Energy near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire in the north east of Scotland.
The station was originally planned as a 1320MW oil fired power station consisting of two 660MW generating units. The proximity of the station to St Fergus gas terminal meant, however, that the boilers were converted to burn gas as well as oil.
In the early 1990s the owners (Scottish Hydro Electric) entered into a contract with BP to burn sour gas from the Miller Field. In order to satisfy the terms of this contract two further units were built (two 120MW Open Cycle gas turbine) with a primary function to burn Miller gas when the two main units were unavailable.
In 2000 the station completed a major repowering project to increase the efficiency and capacity of the station. Three 277MW Siemens gas turbines were utilised in an innovative manner to provide steam to one of the original steam turbines. These changes allowed for 1150MW of output to be delivered at 50% efficiency compared with the original plants 37%.
The installed capacity of Peterhead stands at 2391MW which technically makes it the largest power station in Scotland and the second in the UK behind Drax. The transmission system at Peterhead however, limits production to 1550MW.