Capula successfully meets 75-day outage challenge for fast track control system upgrade at Drax power station

  • Industrial control and automation systems specialists Capula delivers an accelerated control system upgrade as part of a comprehensive upgrade pathway project at Drax power station.
  • Drax is the largest decarbonisation project in Europe having converted the power station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal.
  • Having already completed 80% of the control system upgrades at Drax, including upgrades at Units 1 and 2, Capula was selected by Drax to replicate the same approach at its third unit.
  • The project was successfully delivered in an accelerated outage timeline of 75 days, and against a backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic – ahead of major commissioning and mechanical testing and in accordance with time cost and quality standards.

Staffordshire based Capula has successfully delivered a control system upgrade for Drax as part of a comprehensive upgrade pathway project designed to deliver modern, powerful and flexible control platforms across the site.

Capula completed this recent upgrade at Drax Unit 3 ahead of the major commissioning and mechanical testing and following the successful delivery of upgrade programmes at Unit 1 and 2. In line with the other upgrade projects, the installation was delivered in an accelerated outage timeline of 75 days from start to finish, and in this instance against a backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Richard Horton, Capula’s Energy and Infrastructure Business Manager said: “We have worked with Drax since 1997 and before this project had completed 80% of the control system upgrades. Through the experience gained on previous projects, we were able to deliver this comprehensive upgrade project using the most advanced technology available in quick time and despite the challenges and impacts posed by Covid-19.

This really is testament to our collective knowledge of the technology and customer environment, as well as the passion and resilience of our team to deliver exceptional quality and service to our customers”.

Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal, it has become the largest single site generator of renewable power in the UK and Europe’s biggest decarbonisation project. The company now want to go even further by becoming carbon negative by 2030 by using the negative emissions technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), this is needed for the UK to reach its climate targets.

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