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Coordinates: 55°08′33″N 1°31′37″W / 55.142628, -1.526948

Blyth Power Station
Cambois Power Station
Blyth A and B Power Stations Viewed from Blyth pier on 19 February 2001 Blyth A is on the right and Blyth B is on the left
Blyth Power Station shown within Northumberland
OS grid reference	NZ301832
Operator:	Central Electricity Generating Board (1958-1990) National Power (1990-2000) Innogy (2000-2001)
Fuel:	Coal-fired 480 MW + 1250 MW
Commissioned:	1958
Decommissioned:	2001

Not to be confused with Lynemouth Power Station

Blyth Power Station (also known as Cambois Power Station) refers to a pair of now demolished coal-fired power stations, which were located in North East England and stood on the Northumberland coast for over 40 years. The two stations were built alongside each other on a site near Cambois in Northumberland, on the northern bank of the River Blyth, between its tidal estuary and the North Sea. Blyth A Power Station was built and opened first and had a smaller generating capacity than its sister station, Blyth B Power Station, which was built four years later. The stations took their name from the town of Blyth on the opposite side of the estuary. The A Station first generated electricity in 1958, a year after the creation of the Central Electricity Generating Board, and both stations operated until 2001, after being operated by various forms of National Power, following the privatisation of the UK's power industry.

The two stations were built one after the other, with the construction of the B Station beginning shortly after the completion of the A station. They were built over a period in which there were great advances in power station technology and the scale of production, which led to them having a variety of intermediate generator set sizes and a mix of design styles.¹ Blyth A had a generating capacity of 480 megawatts (MW) and the B Station a generating capacity of 1250 MW. Their combined generating capacity of 1730 MW briefly made Blyth Power Station the largest electricity generation site in England, until Ferrybridge C Power Station came into full operation in 1966.² The power stations' chimneys were a strong landmark on the Northumberland skyline for over 40 years; the A Station's chimneys stood at 450 ft (140 m) and the B Station's chimneys stood even taller at 550 ft (170 m). Following the stations' closure in 2001, they were demolished over the following two years. As of 2008, the stations' site is unused and is still covered in debris following the demolition. However, there are proposals to build a clean coal-fired power station on the site.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Background 1.2 Construction 2 Operations 2.1 Design and specification 2.2 Coal transportation 2.3 Cooling system 2.4 Ash removal 3 Closure and demolition 3.1 Closure 3.2 Demolition 4 Present and future uses of the site 5 Television and film usage 6 References 7 External links

History

Background

In the post war period there was an increasing demand for electricity. In North East England, this led to the construction of two new power stations at Stella, along with the expansion of stations at Dunston and Billingham, to meet the demand for power quickly. However, at Blyth, a larger, more efficient plant was planned, consisting of six 100 megawatts (MW) generating units. This plan was then increased to six 120 MW units, before increasing again and settling upon an A station consisting of four 120 MW units and a B station consisting of two 275 MW units and two 350 MW units.³ This was to give the A and B stations generating capacities of 480 MW and 1250 MW respectively. The Blyth Power Stations were to be an experiment; using a variety of generating set sizes at a time when engineers were trying to standardise power station plant and layout.¹

Construction

Permission for Blyth A Power Station to be built was granted in February 1955, and construction took place between 1955 and 1960. Its first units were put into operation in 1958, and the rest of the units were in operation by June 1960.³ It's four 120 MW sets were the first commissioned in Britain of what was the standard size for a time.¹ Blyth B was constructed in two stages between 1960 and 1966, and was the first power station in Britain to have new 275 MW sets installed.¹⁴ Its two 350 MW sets were of an intermediate stage toward the 500 MW standard, meaning that very few 350 MW sets were ever commissioned in the UK.¹ Both of the stations were designed by L J Couves & Partners.⁴ The A station's design was an unusual mix of styles, with a brick clad turbine hall, a style used more often in the 1950s, and a steel and glass clad boiler house, a style used more often in the 1960s.¹ The stations were engineered by Merz & McLellan and built by the Cleveland Bridge Company.⁴⁵

Operations

Design and specification

Buildings on the power station site included: boiler houses, chimneys, coal handling plant, coal stores, a flue gas cleaning plant, power halls and switch houses.⁴ The large 241-acre (98 ha) site was separated by Bedlington-Cambois Road, with the main station buildings to the south of the road and coal sorting and railway sidings to the north.³

The ground that the power stations' main buildings were built upon consister of a 70 ft (21 m) thick layer of boulder clay, overlying sandstone and coal. The main foundations of the buildings are spread out, giving a load of about 2.3 tonnes (2.264 LT; 2.535 ST) per square foot.

Blyth A's turbine hall was 394 ft (120 m) long by 122 ft (37 m) wide, and 85 ft (26 m) high. It was built from a reinforced concrete frame, clad with brickwork. It housed four 120 MW Metropolitan-Vickers 3,000 rpm turbo generators, each connected to a Babcock and Wilcox boiler, situated in the boiler house. Each boiler and generator set operated independantly, with no connections to other sets. The coal fed into the boilers was pulverised by a Babcock and Wilcox pulveriser. The boiler house was 362 ft (110 m) long by 93 ft (28 m) wide and 157 ft (48 m) high. It was built from a steel frame with aluminium cladding. The A Station housed two control rooms, with each control room serving two generating sets, containing the controls to operate boilers, turbo generators and auxilliary plant. The A Station's switchgear were provided by A. Reyrolle & Company.³

Blyth B's turbine hall was 675 ft (206 m) long by 166 ft (51 m) wide and 100 ft (30 m) high. It housed two 275 MW and two 350 MW English Electric 3,000 rpm turbo generators, each connected to a Clarke Chapman & Co boiler, situated in the boiler house. The boiler house was 675 ft (206 m) long by 105 ft (32 m) wide and 170 ft (52 m) high. The coal fed into the boilers was pulverised by a Babcock and Wilcox pulveriser. Both the turbine hall and boiler house were built from a steel frame, clad with aluminium and glazing. The roofs of the B Station's buildings were made from a lightweight aluminium decking. The B Station's switchgear were provided by A. Reyrolle & Company and by M&C Switchgear. The volume of Blyth B's main buildings represented 27 ft³/kW of installed capacity, while Blyth A's building volume represented 26.3 ft³/kW.³

Blyth A's chimneys stood at 450 ft (140 m) and Blyth B's chimneys stood at 550 ft (170 m) and were a strong landmark on the South East Northumberland skyline.

Coal transportation

The station used coal from the Northumberland and County Durham coal fields.¹ All of the coal used in the stations was brought to them via rail transport. The stations' coal handling facility was fitted with a Merry go Round (MGR) coal delivery system in 1981, after high capacity rapid discharge waggons became the standard of British Rail.³ The system involved the trains slowly passing over a hopper and automaticall discharging their cargo.⁶ Because of site space restrictions, a balloon loop track layout could not be constructed, meaning that instead of the continuous movement of a trains, trains had to arrive on site and pull onto a reception track; the locomotive would then uncouple and recouple at the opposite end, before slowly moving over the unloading track hopper and discharging the coal and eventually leaving site.³ The coal was delivered and stored in a large open area to the north of the power stations. This had a tarmac barrier underneath it to prevent downward contamination.¹ The stations would consume a total of 51,000 tonnes (50,190 LT; 56,220 ST) of coal per week and had a peak consumption of 70,000 tonnes (68,890 LT; 77,160 ST) per week during the winter. The coal was brough from the storage area to the station using a conveyor system that was integrated to feed both stations as necessary.³

Cooling system

Water used in the station was extracted from the Blyth Harbour tidal basin. Condensers were used to convert steam from the turbines back into water. The condensers were of twin two-pass design and had a total cooling surface of 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m²). Condensed water was then extracted by two duty pumps. The water then passed through a drains cooler. The cooled waste water was discharged into the sea off Cambois beach below low tide level.³

Ash removal

Fly ash and bottom ash were byproducts produced through the burning of coal in the station. Bottom ash was removed from ash hoppers at the bottom of the boilers by high pressure water jets. It then traveled to ash settling ponds via sluiceways.³ For much of the stations life, the ash was then disposed of 3 mi (4.8 km) out to sea. Two barges provided this service; Sir Fon and MVA.⁷ However, in the final 10 years of the station's operation, ash was disposed of at a licensed landfill site.¹

Closure and demolition

Closure

In 1989, Blyth A won a place in the Guinness Book of Records by setting the world record for total total running hours in a plant of its size, when all four generating units achieved 200,000 running hours.⁴ With the privatisation of the UK's electric supply industry in 1990, the station passed into the ownership of National Power.⁸ The two 275 MW units at Blyth B (units 5 & 6) were decommissioned in 1991, on the grounds of economy.³ During the 1990s, the station became one of the UK's least efficient power stations.⁸ In 1998, plans were announced to use the station to test clean coal technology, and refit the station with the neccessary equipment. However, the plans were never followed through.⁹ In 1999, then owners Innogy decided to take Blyth A out of operation, while Blyth B began operating only at times of peak demand, because the stations had became surplus of their generating needs.¹⁰¹¹¹² As of 1 April 2000, and for throughout the summer of 2000, the station was taken out of operation, because of the low demand for electricity over the summer months. However, staff were retained to continue the maintainence of the station.¹⁰ Innogy then began looking for a buyer for the station, to decide the site's future. They had been in talks with American based NRG Energy, over a £410 million deal for them to buy the station, along with the Killingholme Power Station in North Lincolnshire.¹³ There had also been rumours that a deal had been made to convert the station into a waste-to-energy plant.¹¹ However, any plans to save the station fell through and the generation of electricity at the station ceased on 31 January 2001, after fourty-three years of operating, resulting in the loss of 131 jobs.¹²¹⁴ At the time of its closure, Blyth Power Station was the oldest coal-fired power station in Britain.⁴ The length of time that the station was in use is partly due to its value in the National Grid, being a "charge" near to a major node in the system.¹ Shortly after closure, there had been joint proposal from the British Army and the Ministry of Agriculture to burn the carcasses of animals slaughtered during the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis in portable incinerators at the station. The station was proposed as a possible site because of its high cimneys, but because of strong local opposition from residents and MPs, and because over 100,000 people were living within 5 km (3.1 mi) of the stations, the proposals were quickly rejected.¹⁵

Demolition

The demolition contract for the station was won by London-based company Brown & Mason.⁸ Prior to the demolition of the stations' main structures, it was required that they be decommissioned. This involved the removal of hazardous materials and contaminents, to keep in line with Health & Safety at Work regualtions. Oils and chemicals were removed for re-use or disposal and storage tanks were flushed out. Methanol was removed from hydrogen production plants on site, along with bottled propane used for welding. The remaining coal in the coal storage area was dispatched to operating power stations in other parts of the country. The landfill site where ash waste from the station was dumped was topsoiled. Asbestos used in the stations was removed prior to the demolition of the stations' structures.¹

The stations were demolished between 2001 and 2003. The smaller buildings and structures were first to go and were all removed by July 2002.⁴ On 11 July 2002, the B Station's boiler house was demolished.¹⁶¹⁷ The 200 ft (61 m) high coal conveyor belt was demolished on 6 Fubruary 2003.¹⁷ On 22 May 2003, the stations' air heater was demolished.¹⁸ All of the larger structures had been demolished by July 2003.⁴ It was planned for the stations' chimneys to be demolished in October 2003, but it had to be postponed due to the complexity of the demolition.¹⁹ However, at Noon on 7 December 2003, the four chimneys, each weighing 17,000 tonnes, were demolished using a total of 150kg of the industrial explosive Gelemex.²⁰⁴ The demolition is thought to have been the biggest chimney demolition in 50 years.²⁰

Present and future uses of the site

The site is now owned by RWE Npower. The only substancial structures remaining on the site after demolition are the National Grid and NEDL substations. These will continue to remain and there are plans to extend the National Grid substation. The site of the main station buildings is currently covered in crushed concrete. Underground workings such as tunnels and culverts do still exist on the site. The coal storage area to the north has been tarmaced and ash settling ponds have been filled with concrete. Some ash mounds are still to the east of the site.²¹

In May 2007, a proposed plan to build a new £2 billion, 2400 MW clean coal power station on the currently empty site was announced. RWE Npower have outlined proposals for three 800 MW, high efficiency, coal-fired units. If Npower succeed in their plans, work would begin in 2010 and the station would be finished by 2014. However, Blyth Valley Council has said the proposal does not fit with regeneration plans in the area.²²²³ Many residents living in the area feel that the land should be redeveloped for other purposes, rather than continue to be used as an industrial site.^{weasel words} The MP for Wansbeck, Denis Murphy, stated that, although the project would have benefits for the area, he still had concerns.²⁴ Ronnie Campbell, the MP for Blyth Valley, claimed he would welcome the development as long as it did not have an adverse effect on the overall regeneration of the area.²⁵ On 5 June 2008 npower reopened the gatehouse at the entrance to the power station's site as a 'drop in' centre for the public to find out more about the proposed plans.²⁶

The proposed new coal power station is now being opposed by local residents and a collection of various agencies under the campaign heading PANiC Stations.

Television and film usage

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (December 2008)

• In 1991 the site was used as a shooting location for the sci-fi horror film Alien 3.⁴
• A documentary was made of the latter stages of the stations' demolition. The documentary was included in Channel Five television programme The Demolition Squad.²⁷

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Blyth Power Station

• BBC photo gallery of chimney demolition.
• Photos of chimney demolition from Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.
• Video of the chimney demolition
• Video of chimney demolition
• Video with two different views of chimney demolition
• Monthly mean sea temperature at Blyth Power Station
• npower UK
• Photos of the coal storage area
• Website of group opposed to the construction of a new coal-fired station at Blyth

Preceded by Drakelow Power Station

Largest Power Station in the UK 1966

Succeeded by Ferrybridge C Power Station

v • d • e Power Stations in North East England Active Hartlepool · Lynemouth · Seal Sands · Teesside · Wilton Mixed Use/C.H.P Royal Victoria Infirmary · Teesside WTE · Wilton 10 Former or Demolished Berwick-upon-Tweed · Blaydon Burn · Blyth · Carville · The Close · Dunston · Forth Banks · Horden · Lemington · Manors · Neptune Bank · Newburn · North Tees · Pandon Dene · Philadelphia · Stella · Sunderland Proposed Blyth Clean Coal · Kielder Wind Farm · Thor Cogeneration Wind Farms Blyth Offshore and Pier · Holmside · Kirkheaton · Nissan Motors Plant · Tow Law Organisations Alcan Smelting and Power UK · British Energy · C. A. Parsons and Company · CEGB · Durham Collieries Power Company · E.ON · Gaz de France · L J Couves & Partners · Merz & McLellan · National Power · Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company · Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company · Northern Electric · npower

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• This page was last modified on 6 January 2009, at 19:20.

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