On 22 June, about a month later than originally hoped, Tilbury biomass power station in Essex, UK, exported its first power to the national grid since the fire at the site in February. The first of the station’s three units, known as Tilbury 8, has now been returned to service. The fuel hoppers to the other two units, 9 and 10, are still being refitted and these units are not expected to return to service before the end of July.
The seat of the fire was in one of these two wood pellet hoppers, which suffered the worst damage. The owner RWE AG says it has completed a thorough investigation and has concluded that there was no single event that caused February’s fire.
A number of relatively minor events that, taken in isolation would not have escalated, combined to cause the fire, which developed from a localised smouldering incident.
When wood pellets in neighbouring hoppers were moved, significant air drafts were created and, despite fire suppressant foam having been used to cap the affected areas, it is likely that the increased levels of oxygen caused the ignition of the smouldering dust. Although it has not been possible to definitively identify the mechanism for the escalation, this is considered to be the most likely cause.
To improve the safety level at the power station as it returns to service, a number of significant changes have been implemented alongside the repairs, says RWE.
The conversion of Tilbury power station created the world’s largest dedicated biomass plant and, as the first of its kind, it was likely to expose new challenges and require innovative solutions. “As a responsible organisation, we will take on board all the lessons learned from the fire and will be sharing all key findings with the wider industry in due course” says RWE.
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