Stanley power station: How does it work?
Written for the April 15, 2022 issue of Penguin News. Printed under the headline “An insight into Stanley power station operations”.
Penguin News were invited to take a tour of the power station and wind farm, and with the guidance of Power Station Manager, Glenn Ross, left with a greater understanding of the inner workings of the power station - and the challenges present in making use of renewable energies in the Falkland Islands.
Pushing through failures
Mr Ross explained that the power station (which has existed on its current site since 1951, though the so-called ‘B Station’ as it now stands, has only been online since 1973), has been continuously pushed to its limits and has only been able to be kept in operation due to the hard work and expertise of the team there, managing to regain service after multiple critical failures over the years.
A failure of a “catastrophic fashion” occurred on March 27, 2011, when a counterweight weighing 60kgs was blasted out of Generating Set 7 (GS7) [installed in 1988] into a point which a member of the engine hall staff had passed by only seconds before. At this time two other generators were offline, as one needed a new alternator and another was undergoing maintenance, and a third was made to share its workload with GS7, meaning the entire power requirements for Stanley had to be fulfilled by half of the eight generating units.
GS7, which became a mainstay of power production in 2019, later reached “end of life” in January 2022 following a critical failure.
Mr Ross told Penguin News “since the major failure in 2011, only 2018 and 2020 were relatively clear years without major [power] availability issues.”
Problems with power provision come as the power station team push continuously to extend the lives of the generators, the oldest of which, GS1, GS2 and GS3, will complete 50 years in service in 2023.
The Interim Station
The process for setting up an interim power station was begun in May 2015 in an emergency meeting with MLAs, which Mr Ross said was, “needed to provide continuity of service for the five years it would take to build the new main power station.” This emergency process took five years to be completed, however.
The interim station was tested in May 2020, when the main station was allowed to fall silent for 40 minutes, during which time the Interim Station took over, carrying 57% of the load as the other 43% was carried by the Sand Bay Wind Farm. Since this time further tests of up to six hours have followed, unnoticed by consumers in Stanley.
Renewable Energy
On the subject of renewable energy, Mr Ross expressed frustration at a perception that renewables aren’t being progressed enough in the Falklands.
“We heard the outcry at the recent general election that we need to make a ‘start’ on renewables. It’s hard to believe that statement given we have been making a significant effort climbing and working on turbines since 2007.”
Mr Ross went on to explain that 93 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) have been generated to date by the wind farm, “this is equivalent to 5 years out of the last 15 being entirely renewable," Mr Ross stated, adding that this is the equivalent of 25 million litres of diesel which haven't been used.
He went on to explain that prior to the installation of the wind farm at Sand Bay it was predicted that such a system could only achieve 12-20% of wind energy penetration (ratio of the amount of energy delivered to the power grid from wind generation to the total amount of energy delivered to the grid from all sources) on an island. "Before we came along," Mr Ross said.
"Using our own concepts for renewables, delivered in an excellent partnership with Enercon, we have achieved penetration of wind on our system of 77%."
He continued, "Many islands look at our system with envy, there is an extensive catalogue of failed wind farms on truly islanded networks."
Expanding on the concept of a "truly islanded network", Mr Ross said that the Orkney Islands and Samso, an island off the coast of Denmark, are used as examples of islands achieving peak renewable energy ratios, some sources even claiming they are "over 100% renewable." This is incorrect, Mr Ross pointed out.
"Geographically they remain islands; electrically neither of them are. Both are linked by high voltage cables to their respective national grids."
The significance of this, Mr Ross explained, is these other islands can then feed back into the European grid when they need to curtail output if too much energy enters the system from a surge in wind or solar power.
The Falklands, Mr Ross noted, are closer in comparison to Hawaii, who are a truly islanded system without any link to a massive mainland grid.
"With their sunny situation, are they 100% solar?" Mr Ross asked.
"No, they place strict controls and ban most proposals" for small, personal, renewable energy sources; any that are approved, Mr Ross stated, are not allowed to feed back onto the grid and are required to have storage "so as not to use the grid at their convenience."
The concern in these smaller systems, Mr Ross said, is that these systems produce "volatile and non-dispatchable power during the day that the power provider will need to manage" and then during the night individuals continue consuming from the network.
"Most will understand that if we all switch on our electric kettle at the same time several thousand 1.5kW loads would collapse our system. Yet few or none seem to want to grasp the real nightmare that several thousand 3kW solar arrays or wind turbines installed on Stanley rooftops would cause as they come on and then off as sunlight or wind dictates."
Due to these circumstances Mr Ross said, "for the foreseeable future we will need an energy mix. We need a robust and reliable, conventional, source of electricity."
Currently the power station is in the process of procuring a replacement for the expired Generator Set 7, but getting approval can be a challenge, Mr Ross noted, as support for new diesel fuelled power is low and the Power & Electrical Service face resistance. "We will try to overcome the hurdles of environment, procurement, treasury, CMT, Gilbert House and SFC, but even if everything is approved quickly we face at least 12 to 18 months before it is replaced," he said.
On the future of renewables in the Falklands Mr Ross voiced concerns on the fact that the approved lifetime for the current wind turbines is 20 years - and as such, without extension being granted by the manufacturers, wind production could cease entirely by 2030.
"The proposal for expansion of Sand Bay Wind Farm submitted in October 2020 remains the only sensible option for genuinely increasing our green energy contribution."