Kyndby Power Station turns 75
Kyndby Power Station was Denmark's largest power station in the 70s. Today, it functions as the 'defibrillator' for Sealand.
On 1 April 1940, 38 employees turned up for work for the first time at Sealand's large, new power station near Isefjord in north western Sealand. The power station had two steam turbine units, each with a capacity of 30MW. Today, Kyndby Power Station turns 75, and 37 employees operate the power station which has a total capacity of 734MW today.
It all began when a number of utility companies outside of Copenhagen wanted a joint power station to supply all of Sealand. They decided to initiate the construction of the Isefjord Power Plant in 1937. In 1942, the name of the power station was changed to 'Kyndby Power Station'.
Rudi Hansen, who is responsible for operations at Kyndby Power Station, said:
"The power station was to be placed on a filling in Isefjord outside the original coastline. It was a very remote place, and it took the construction of the power station to ensure that an asphalt road going all the way down to the water was built. Due to its remoteness, the company also decided to build a number of houses for some of the employees to ensure that they didn't have to spend much time on transport."
Kyndby Power Station has continuously been expanded. The first time was right after the end of the war where the power station was expanded with another turbine and boiler similar to the first ones. In June 1976, unit 22 came into operation and Kyndby Power Station became the largest Danish power station with a capacity of 940MW. At the same time, the expansion came to an end.
On 15 June 1977, Rudi Hansen had his first working day at Kyndby Power Station.
Hansen explained:
"I came directly from the marine engineering school and was to be trained in operating a power station. And it was a very impressive workplace to begin ones career as an operations engineer. It was a huge power station with more than 250 employees and a fantastic location at Isefjord. We operated both old and new plants. Almost everything was carried out manually at the old plants, whereas we could control everything on the new ones from the control room. It was very fascinating."
From Denmark's largest power station to backup
As more and more power stations were built on Sealand, Kyndby Power Station changed its role from a base load power station to a back-up power station. For the past 15 years, the power station has served as a backup power station on Sealand, and it is now referred to as the 'defibrillator' of Sealand, as it is the only power station with the capability of restarting the grid in the event of a power failure.
Hansen concluded:
"Our most important task today is to be ready to start up in situations where Sealand needs power. We're contributing to ensuring a stable power supply in the Sealand grid."
In 2014, DONG Energy and the Danish transmission system operator Energinet.dk entered into a new five-year agreement stating that Kyndby Power Station together with the gas turbine at Masnedø CHP Plant will continue to act as backup power stations on Sealand from 2016 and five years going forward.
