Barking Power Station
1897 Barking Urban District Council set up and operated its own small power station near to their offices.
1920 The County of London Electric Supply Co applied for permission to build a power station, capable of expansion to 600MW. The Station would initially have 12 x 20MW generators and 24 boilers.
1922 The order for the first part was placed with C. A. Parsons and Co., Ltd., for an aggregate capacity of 120,000 kW. It comprised 2 x 20,000-kW and 2 x40,000-kW (actually 2 x 20MW alternators/turbine) turbo-alternators.
1925 Barking 'A' Power Station at Creekmouth opened. At the time, it was the largest power station in Britain to be built as a complete station in one move. Initial capacity was 100 MW, at 6,600 volts.
1925 Barking Power Station was opened by King George V on 19 May 1925 and was brought into commercial operation on 1 January 1926.
1926 the station was extended to 8 C. A. Parsons turbo-generators (4 × 40 MW and 4 × 20 MW) and 22 boilers, plus 2 dedicated reheat boilers. The two 40 MW sets were cross-compound units and one was the first Parsons set with reheat. These were in two boiler houses, one being all chain-grate boilers (6 Babcock & Wilcox and 6 Yarrow) and the other being all pulverised fuel boilers (I.C.L.). The maximum steam capacity of the A station boilers was 1,900,000 lb/hr (239 kg/s). Steam pressure and temperature at the turbine stop valves was 350 psi (24 bar) and 371 °C.
1927 it took over from the Barking Town Urban District Council station, providing a bulk electricity supply. The Barking Urban District Council station closed down.
1928 The western half of the 'A' Station followed, bringing capacity up to 240 MW
1928 Description of jetty and pumphouse works at the station.[1]
When completed, the 'A' station was the largest power station in Britain to have been built as a complete station.
1931-9 Barking B Power Station was constructed. Merz and McLellan were the consulting engineers. The station building was notable as an early instance of a steel and glass modernist architectural design, an utterly different design idiom to that of the 'A' Station.
1933 The Western half of the 'B' station was opened. A 75 MW turbine-alternator was commissioned by BTH at the new power station - made partly at Rugby and partly at Trafford Park works. Steam conditions 600-700 psig, 800-850 degF.[2]. These were the largest turbo-alternators in service in Britain at the time. The construction of the turbo-alternators was shared between BTH and Metropolitan-Vickers. A description of the plant was provided in Engineering 1934/02/09.
1934 Barking was the largest generating plant on the Grid, with a total capacity of 390 MW.
1939 The eastern half of the 'B' Station opened giving a new total output of 540 MW; the 'B' Station generated at 12,500 volts.
WWII Capacity increased by the addition of another 75 MW generating set and four boilers. The generating set came into service in the summer of 1940 and was followed by two boilers in 1941 and the other two in 1942. All eight boilers were made by Babcock and Wilcox.
1945 The installed capacity of Barking station was 537.5 MW[3]
1948 Planning by the British Electricity Authority began for the 'C' station.
1950s The Yarrow boilers ('A' Station) were scrapped, their capacity being replaced by steam from the 'B' station via a steam line and suitable regulating equipment.
1952-4 The Barking C Station was built following nationalization. The British Electricity Authority built a third station at Creekmouth, which was completed in 1954. The 'C' Station had three B.T.H. 75 MW turbo-generators operating with steam conditions of 900 psig (62 bar). There were 6 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 5 being pulverised fuel and the sixth a cyclone furnace. The maximum steam capacity of the station boilers was 2,565,000 lb/hr (323 kg/s).
1964 The pulverised fuel boilers in the 'C' station were converted to oil firing around 1964. By 1964 there were 3 × 40 MW and 1 × 36.75 MW generators.
1966 One of the 40 MW machines was decommissioned.
1969 The 'A' station was decommissioned.
1976 The 'B' station closed on 15 March 1976, at which time its generating capacity was 144 megawatts.
1981 The station closed, at which time its generating capacity was 220 MW.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Engineering 1928/03/16
- ↑ The Engineer 1934/01/05
- ↑ The Engineer 1945/03/30
- [1]] Historic England