Engineering and construction group Costain has been awarded a contract to refit two cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station.

Near Warrington, the firm will carry out the work on behalf of customer, SSE.

The power station has eight natural draught water cooling towers which help to improve the efficiency of the power generation process. However, the silted condition of the plastic heat exchange media inside the cooling towers had resulted in a significant decline in its cooling efficiency. In turn, this caused a significant increase in weight imposed on the concrete support beams.

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As part of the contract, the site team will dispose of waste material and replace the existing plastic with 13,000m3 of an improved design which will result in less silt contamination. New plastic spray pipes will also be installed as part of the work. The plastic sheets will be fed along assembly lines that have been designed by Costain, and a solvent-free adhesive will be mechanically applied to bond together the sheets into modules which will then be dried in racks.

The work is expected to be completed during an 18-week period, during summer 2013.

(JP)