Work underway on Drax Power Station turbine upgrade

Work is underway at Drax Power Station to upgrade one of its turbines and complete a major £40m investment programme.More than 1,000 contractors will work to enhance the performance of one of the station’s four biomass units and improve its efficiency.The work will include installing a new high-pressure turbine barrel, new pipework and surveying the station’s boilers as part of Drax’s plans to reduce the cost of its biomass power generation by about a third by 2027.The upgrade is the third and final upgrade as part of a £40m investment programme in the station’s turbines, which started in 2019.Drax is aiming to become carbon negative by 2030 by using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).Earlier this year Drax moved forward with its plans for BECCS by selecting Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) as its technology partner and kickstarting the planning process to develop BECCS at the powerstation this decade.