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Wakefield College learners visit Drax power station

Tuesday, 7 February, 2017

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Residential Construction

Students learning about the works of Drax power station

Electricity is in the heart of everything that we do. It powers our homes, our businesses, our computers, phones and tablets; but how many of us can say we really know how it’s generated? Drax power station kindly opened its doors to 27 Level 2 Electrical Installation learners from Wakefield College recently. The trip consisted of a very informative tour of the power station, showing  students the extensive process of generating electricity and supplying it across the UK.

Drax generates 7% to 8% of the UK’s electricity, and to do this, they have to operate on a massive scale, which students experienced at first-hand. The professional tour guides took the learners to see the six boilers situated at Drax, each as high as a 15-storey office block, a main chimney taller than the London Eye, and over 1,800 miles of steel tubing, enough to stretch from John O’Groats to Land’s End and back again. The students got a huge buzz from the scale of the operation and were keen to learn about the newest biomass technology, which is cutting Drax’s carbon footprint by a whopping 80%.

Piotr Szatkowski, a Wakefield College Learning Support Assistant said “The trip to Drax was extremely beneficial to our Electrical Installation students for many reasons; it’s really important for the learners to understand the principals of generating electricity and supplying it to homes and businesses across the UK.” 

Kevin Mincher, lecturer in construction, said: “Our Electrical Installation students study the principles of electrical science and electrical installations technology within their course material, so seeing these in action at a working power station can only encourage and inspire our learners to continue to work hard.”