E.ON’s U.K. Kingsnorth Plant Fixed With Old Power Plant Switches

E.ON AG has fixed a unit at its Kingsnorth power station using switches from part of its oil- fired Grain power station.

Unit 1 at the 2,000-megawatt Kingsnorth power station in Kent, southeast England, was halted on July 11 after a fire in the station’s switch room. The unit started generating again on Nov. 18. It was idle today as of 3:45 p.m. local time.

A unit in the switch room was “rebuilt using salvageable material and spare 11 kilovolt switchgear” from the oil-fed power station on the Isle of Grain, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kingsnorth, Jonathan Smith, a Coventry-based spokesman, said by e-mail. E.ON operates two 690-megawatt oil- fired units at Grain and has built a natural-gas fueled power station at the site.

The repairs included a re-design and re-build of the damaged board and associated cabling, Smith said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Airlie in London at cairlie@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net