Richborough Power Station | |
---|---|
![]() | |
![]() | |
Country | UK |
Location | Richborough Kent |
Coordinates | 51°18′36″N1°20′46″E / 51.310°N 1.346°E |
Status | Decommissioned and demolished |
Construction began | 1958 |
Commission date | 1962 |
Decommission date | 1996 |
Owner(s) | Central Electricity Generating Board (1962–1990) |
Operator(s) | CEGB |
Thermal power station | |
Primary fuel | Coal (1962-71), Oil (1971-89), Orimulsion (1989-96) |
Chimneys | 1 (127 metres) |
Cooling towers | Three |
Cooling source | Recirculating water |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 3 × 120 MW |
Nameplate capacity | 336 MW |
Annual net output | See graph in text |
External links | |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
Richborough power station was a 336 MW power station close to the mouth of the River Stour near Sandwich, on the east coast of Kent. It was built on land within the Port of Richborough but being on the northern edge its site lies mostly within the neighbouring parish of Minster, Kent. It operated from 1962 to 1996; the towers were demolished on 11 March 2012. BFL Management Ltd, the current owners of the site plan to bring it back into use as the £750 million Richborough Energy Park.
The Central Electricity Generating Board started construction of the power station in 1958, [1] with Unit 1 coming online in December 1962, and Unit 2 following in August 1963. [2] It opened as a 336 MW coal-fired station, using coal from East Kent coalfield and elsewhere. [3] [4] [5]
The maximum total steam capacity of the station boilers was 2,580,000 lb/hr (325 kg/s). Steam pressure and temperature at the turbine stop valves was 1500 psi (103.4 bar) and 538 °C. [6]
From 1964 to 1972 Richborough was one of the CEGB's twenty stations with the highest thermal efficiencies. The thermal efficiency was 30.88% (1964); 32.84% (1965); 33.83% (1966); 33.82% (1967); 32.9% (1968); 32.26% (1969); 32.62% (1970); 32.31% (1971); 32.03% (1972). [6]
It was converted to burn oil in summer 1971 [2] [7] and further converted in 1989 to burn a proprietary oil and water emulsion called Orimulsion, imported from Venezuela through Port Richborough. [8]
The site was also chosen as the site for an experimental 1 MW wind turbine, which was at that time the largest ever installed in the UK, [8] with permission given in 1987, [9] and the turbine becoming live in 1989. [8]
After growing concerns over the environmental effects of the Orimulsion fuel in the main power station, [10] court action was taken in two separate actions, [11] with both cases settled out of court. [8] One of the turbo-alternators was decommissioned in 1994, this reduced the output capability to 228 MW. The station ceased generating electricity in 1996. [12] [13]
Electricity output from Richborough power station over the period 1963–1987 was as follows. [6] [14]
Richborough annual electricity output GWh.
![]() | Graphs are temporarily unavailable due to technical issues. |
The higher output in 1984/5 reflects the increased use of oil-fired power stations because of limitations on the availability of coal during the 1984-5 miners' strike.
Following the plant closure, the majority of the equipment was removed during a strip out programme, which also saw the demolition of a number of the buildings, leaving only a few outbuildings, the office block and the landmark cooling towers and chimney standing. [8]
In controlled blasts, the three 97m cooling towers and the 127m chimney stack were demolished at 9:07 am on 11 March 2012. Some locals had campaigned to keep the towers, saying they formed part of the historical landscape and were used as a navigation point by boats wanting to enter the mouth of the River Stour, known to have a narrow channel of useful depth. [13] The turbine hall was the last part of the power station to be demolished in 2016.
The current owner of the site, BFL Management Ltd, plan to bring the site back into use as a £750 million green energy park. The national grid interconnector from the original power station is still in place, and is now the grid link for the offshore Thanet Wind Farm. [8] [15]
There are additional plans to create additional recycling and green energy facilities on site, including an anaerobic digester, a waste processing plant, a biomass combined heat and power generator, a pyrolysis plant and a peak demand 30MW diesel generator. [16] When fully operational, the park could provide up to 1,400MW of power, employing 100 full-time equivalent, with up to 500 jobs in the construction phase. [13] National Grid are using part of the site for an interconnector with Belgium. The Nemo Link, fully operational since 31 January 2019, is a 1000MW High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) 130 km undersea link with the Belgium transmission operator, Elia, to allow power to flow in both directions. This is the third link from the UK National Grid to Europe, the others being the Britned 1000MW link to the Netherlands commissioned in 2011 and the IFA 2000MW link to France commissioned in 1986.
The power station can be seen in several scenes of the 2008 film Son of Rambow , and was the location for the 2003 Channel 4 television series Full Metal Challenge . More recently a brief clip of the demolition of the cooling towers was used by Alter Bridge in their official music video for 'Addicted to Pain' off their 2013 album Fortress .
The Ferrybridge power stations were a series of three coal-fired power stations on the River Aire near Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire, England, in operation from 1927 to 2016 on a site next to the junction of the M62 and A1(M) motorways.
Rye House Power Station is a 715 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station close to Rye House railway station in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
Thorpe Marsh Power Station was a 1 GW coal-fired power station near Barnby Dun in South Yorkshire, England. The station was commissioned in 1963 and closed in 1994. In 2011, permission was given for the construction of a gas-fired power station on the site.
The Littlebrook Power Station were a series of four oil and coal-fired power stations situated on the south bank of the River Thames, next to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel in Dartford, Kent. The final power station, Littlebrook D, ceased operating in March 2015, and has now been demolished.
Little Barford Power Station is a gas-fired power station just north of the village of Little Barford in Bedfordshire, England. It lies just south of the A428 St Neots bypass and east of the Wyboston Leisure Park. The River Great Ouse runs alongside. It was formerly the site of two coal-fired power stations, now demolished. The station is operated by RWE.
Roosecote Power Station was a gas-fired, originally coal-fired power station, situated in the Roosecote district of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, North West England. The gas-fired station opened in 1991 and was the first CCGT power station to supply electricity to the United Kingdom's National Grid, but was mothballed in 2012 after a proposed biomass power station was cancelled. It was situated directly adjacent to Rampside Gas Terminal. The plant was demolished between 2014 and 2015. The site is now a 49 MW battery storage facility.
Staythorpe C Power Station is a 1,735 MWe gas-fired power station at Staythorpe between Southwell and Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England, between the River Trent and Nottingham to Lincoln railway line. The station was handed over to the owner RWE from Alstom Power with full commercial operation being achieved in December 2010. The official opening ceremony attended by Charles Hendry, Minister of State took place on 9 May 2011.
The Tilbury power stations were two thermal power stations on the north bank of the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex. The 360 MW dual coal- and oil-fired Tilbury A Power Station operated from 1956 until 1981 when it was mothballed, prior to demolition in 1999. The 1,428 MW Tilbury B Power Station operated between 1968 and 2013 and was fueled by coal, as well as co-firing with oil and, from 2011, biomass. Tilbury B was demolished in 2016–19. Since 2013 three other power stations have been proposed or constructed in Tilbury.
North Tees Power Station refers to a series of three coal-fired power stations on the River Tees at Billingham in County Durham. Overall, they operated from 1921 until 1983, and the C station, the last on the site, was demolished in 1987. Billingham Biomass Power Station is to be built on their site.
The Uskmouth power stations refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations at the mouth of the River Usk in the south-east of Newport, Wales. The first of the two station, Uskmouth A power station, was built in the 1940s and demolished in 2002.
Ince Power Station refers to two demolished power stations near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, North West England.
Hams Hall Power Station refers to a series of three, now demolished coal-fired power stations, situated in Warwickshire in the West Midlands of England, 9 miles (14 km) from Birmingham.
Westwood Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated adjacent to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Ince-in-Makerfield in Greater Manchester, North West England.
Hackney Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated at Lea Bridge on the River Lee Navigation in London.
Bulls Bridge Power Station was a 280 MW open-cycle gas-turbine power station at Bull's Bridge, Hayes in west London. It was decommissioned in 1993 and later demolished.
Northfleet Power Station was a coal-fired, later oil-fired, power station on the south bank of the Thames at Northfleet, Kent. Opened in 1963, it was converted to burn oil in 1972, and closed in 1991.
Padiham Power Station was a coal-fired power station in Padiham, east Lancashire, England, which began operation in 1926 and generated power from 1927 until it was closed in 1993.
Skelton Grange Power Station refers to two now-demolished coal fired power stations that served the city of Leeds and surrounding areas. They were located in the Stourton area of the city. The power stations were built in the early 1950s and early 1960s, taken out of use in 1983 and 1994 and subsequently dismantled but the associated 275 kV switching substation was retained and remains in use.
Ribble Power Station was a coal-fired electricity generating station on the River Ribble in Penwortham near Preston, Lancashire, England. The station was built by the Corporation of Preston to replace a small privately-run generating station in the town. It supplied electricity to Preston and the surrounding area from 1923 until 1976. The station was expanded with new equipment in 1943–47 which remained in operation until the power station was closed in 1976 and was subsequently demolished.