Croydon Power Station is a gas power plant in Greater London that generates 50 MW of power. It is operated by Whitetower Energy Limited and has a 67m free-standing double-skinned steel chimney that discharges waste gas from the gas turbine. Zenith was appointed to undertake a structural survey of the chimney and found several defects requiring immediate repair ,to ensure the safe operation of the chimney in the future.
The chimney is made up of eight sections of internal flue and eight sections of external windshield, with the liner being a 304 grade stainless steel.
Zenith Engineering Consultants designed an innovative access solution, which Zenith SAS operatives installed and used to safely undertake the refurbishment works.
The chimney refurbishment was completed in phases: planning, pre-outage work, outage and the post-outage.
The refurbishment works required the chimney to be dismantled in sections. Each section was placed within a temporary structure to provide section support, suitable access as well as the encapsulation of each section which enabled the following refurbishment works to be completed:
Surface preparation of carbon steel surfaces using abrasive blasting media.
Remedial strengthening work to chimney sections.
Installation of replacement insulation to the chimney flue liner sections.
Application of high temperature/protective paint system to the internal and external windshield.
After successful completion of the refurbishment works, the chimney was systematically re-erected into position.