On Tuesday the 20th of October, Year 10 Set 2 Physics visited the SELCHP power station in
Millwall, this was as part of their studies on electricity generation. SELCHP stands for South East
London Combined Heat and Power Limited.
We traveled to the power station via mini bus. When we first arrived we were given a talk on
what was the use of the power station, that basic household rubbish is collected and brought to a
station like SELCHP where it is then burnt and the heat is then used to create electricity. This is
then put back into the national grid at about 132 thousand volts. The national grid is better than
just having regional power supply, as if the station is closed for maintenance or any other reason,
then the whole area would not lose power. After this talk we were all given a guided tour around
the plant so we could see the plant in action. The bad thing about this was that we had to wear
fluorescent yellow jackets, crash helmets and safety specs.
However the tour was very interesting, especially seeing the large clamps that had to sort
through the rubbish which were mechanically controlled and seeing the rubbish being burnt to create
the steam in order to turn the 4 meter diameter turbine, to create the electricity.
All in all this trip was very helpful to our course and interesting, even though it did smell
rather funny in parts.
Tiffany Hepher 10D