Essent’s Amer Power Plant will undergo a complete refurbishment

On 4 April Essent will start the overhaul of unit 8 at the Amer Power Plant in Geertruidenberg. This is the largest-scale overhaul in Essent's history. The other unit at the Amer Power Plant, the Amer 9, will simply continue operation during the maintenance period, lasting for almost three months. Each day, more than 1,000 people will be involved in the work.

Huge job

The planned (four-yearly) overhaul involves a significant amount of inspection and preventative maintenance work. Additionally, amongst others, the internal parts of the high-pressure turbine will be completely replaced and the gas turbine and the flue gas system will be tackled. A mobile crane weighing 1,200 tonnes will be used for the work on the boiler.

Limited inconvenience to the surrounding area

There will be minimum inconvenience to the neighbours. Essent has explicitly asked the sub-contractors not to allow their personnel to drive through the centre of Geertruidenberg. The volume of traffic will also be staggered by the work taking place in two shifts. The first shift starts at 6 'o' clock in the morning and the second shift between 2 and 3 'o' clock in the afternoon. Expectations are that there will be no excessive noise levels; the majority of the work will take place inside the power plant.

Safety

The highest priority is safety. For that purpose, a multitude of safety protocols and regulations have been drawn up, which everyone has to adhere to. For example, anyone not holding the right qualifications to perform the specialist work may not enter the site. During the overhaul period, a special rescue team will be present at the power plant which, if necessary, can provide rapid assistance.

About Amer Power Plant

The Amer Power Plant in Geertruidenberg is one of Essent's larger generating facilities. The power plant consists of unit 8 (in operation since 1980) and unit 9 (1993). The two units have a combined electricity generating capacity of 1,245 megawatts and a heat generating capacity of 600 megawatts. They can generate enough electricity each year to satisfy the needs of three million households. Apart from coal, Essent uses clean biomass on a wide scale to produce green energy. Currently 35% of the coal at the Amer 9 is already replaced by clean biomass. In the years to come, Essent wants to increase this percentage to 50%, and even to more than 80% biomass, in order to be able to increase the production of green energy further still.

Published: 28 March 2011