Great year for Hartlepool

As Hartlepool power station enters 2021, after nearly 40 years of providing low carbon electricity, the staff there can look back at a challenging but very successful year.

The site has produced more than 8.5 terawatt hours of electricity, one of the best annual outputs in the station’s history.

Like every other industry the station has had to make changes, bringing in a range of Covid precautionary measures to protect the site’s 750 workforce and to ensure that the station has played its part in keeping the UK supplied with electricity.

Craig Dohring, Station Director at Hartlepool power station, said: “I am very proud of the team here who have adapted to the new ways of working and have maintained the supply of low carbon electricity for the country.”

“2020 has been a great year for the station and that is because of the team we have here who have met the Covid challenge and also the goals we set ourselves in terms of output and reliability.”

In 2020 the station set an ambitious target to run efficiently and restriction free all year and as Christmas approached the site had reached this important goal – the first time this had happened for 10 years

Hartlepool also ended the year with an excellent final refuelling outage which was safely completed almost a day ahead of plan. The site has to shutdown its reactors to refuel, and after 13 days the station returned reactor 1 safely back to full power.

Ross McAllister, Hartlepool’s plant manager, said: “Bringing the reactor back to power a day ahead of plan was an excellent effort by all involved.”

“Most importantly the outage was carried out safely with to the highest quality standards, demonstrating the professionalism and focus of our staff and contractors.”

The team safely refuelled 22 channels in the 13 days, whilst also carrying out 12 inspections of the core, which supports the site’s on-going graphite checks.

Ross added: “Meeting refuelling and operational targets does not happen by accident. It is a team effort and the support and active participation of everyone on the site has been the difference this year.”

“We will continue to identify areas for improvement across the station for 2021. Our people are, without doubt, our most valuable asset when it comes to ensuring Hartlepool is one of EDF’s most productive power stations.”