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Whitegate Power station
[|thumb|upright| Whitegate power station] is a single shaft combined cycle power plant, with the capacity to produce 445MW of power, fitted with GE PG9371 technology. The power plant contains a gas turbine, steam turbine, 450H generator and HRSG. The plant has capabilities to burn a combination of refinery and natural gas fuel sources. The cooling of the plant is done through an air cooled condenser (ACC) and fin fan cooler. The power station is owned by Bord Gáis Energy, while the day to day running of the plant is carried out by GE Power.

The power plant is located near the village of Whitegate on the southern coast of County Cork In thermal power stations, mechanical power is produced by a heat engine that transforms thermal energy, often from combustion of a fuel, into rotational energy. Most thermal power stations produce steam, so they are sometimes called steam power stations. Not all thermal energy can be transformed into mechanical power, according to the second law of thermodynamics; therefore, there is always heat lost to the environment. If this loss is employed as useful heat, for industrial processes or district heating, the power plant is referred to as a cogeneration power plant or CHP (combined heat-and-power) plant. In countries where district heating is common, there are dedicated heat plants called heat-only boiler stations. An important class of power stations in the Middle East uses by-product heat for the desalination of water.

The efficiency of a thermal power cycle is limited by the maximum working fluid temperature produced. The efficiency is not directly a function of the fuel used. For the same steam conditions, coal-, nuclear- and gas power plants all have the same theoretical efficiency. Overall, if a system is on constantly (base load) it will be more efficient than one that is used intermittently (peak load). Steam turbines generally operate at higher efficiency when operated at full capacity.

Besides use of reject heat for process or district heating, one way to improve overall efficiency of a power plant is to combine two different thermodynamic cycles in a combined cycle plant. Most commonly, exhaust gases from a gas turbine are used to generate steam for a boiler and a steam turbine. The combination of a "top" cycle and a "bottom" cycle produces higher overall efficiency than either cycle can attain alone.