Thornhill Power Station

1925. BTH.

1932. The Thornhill Power Station.

near Dewsbury, Yorkshire

1902 Commissioned by Yorkshire Electric Power Co, as a 4.5 MW station.

c.1919 Extensions planned

1925 Equipment supplied by BTH; owned by Yorkshire Electric Power Co

1929 The power station was selected for the Mid-East England Electricity Scheme

1932 'The original station contained four 20,000-lb. Babcock and Wilcox boilers and three 1,500-kw. British Thomson-Houston vertical Curtis turbine sets, together with three Allen high-speed engines driving direct-current dynamos. The steam pressure and temperature were 150 lb. and 450 deg. F., respectively, and three-phase, 50-cycle was generated at 11,000 volts, which was an unusually high pressure 28 years ago. Additional boilers and machines were added from time to time, and in 1910 a 3,000-kw. Curtis turbine was installed followed by a 2,000 kw. horizontal shaft machine in 1913. During the period, between 1916 and 1918, two 6,000-kw. British Thomson-Houston sets were installed in an extension. After the war, two 12,500-kw. Parsons sets were added.

'The extension carried out during the built at a difficult period when the amount of steel used in constructional work had to be kept to a minimum, and the character of the buildings could not altogether be maintained. None the less, the completed building in its present condition presents a very uniform appearance, .... This preservation of a uniform appearance and straightforward lay-out is particularly striking in the turbine house in connection with the recent installation of a 30,000-kw. set in the space occupied by the original vertical Curtis sets to which we have already referred. By careful planning, the original foundation raft and turbine house structure have been retained with only minor modifications to carry the greater weights involved, and an inspection of the turbine house itself, or an examination of Fig. 2, makes it difficult to realise that the lay-out was not originally planned as it now stands. The conversion reflects great credit on Mr. W. B. Woodhouse, the engineer and manager, and his staff. the new 30,000-kw. set .... was built by Messrs. The English Electric Company, Limited, of Rugby. It is a two-cylinder machine designed to operate at a steam pressure of 415 lb. per square inch and a temperature of 750 deg. C....'

By 1932–37 extensions brought it to a capacity of 75 MW

1950-54 The station was further extended by the British Electricity Authority

1981 Coal ceased being brought to the power station via the Calder and Hebble Navigation

1982 Generation ceased.

The site was later occupied by a gas turbine power plant.

See Also

Loading...