West Thurrock Power Station
West Thurrock Power Station was a coal-fired power station with a total output of 1,300 MW (two 200 MW turbo-alternator units by C. A. Parsons and Co and three 300 MW units by AEI, using a four-cylinder tandem compound design, at the time the largest units installed by the C.E.G.B.). The station was located on the north bank of the Thames Estuary about 1.5 miles west of Grays. It was designed in the late 1950s, and built between 1962 and 1965.
It was the first C.E.G.B. power station designed to exceed 1000 MW.
It was also structurally and architecturally unusual, the boilers being open to the elements with a turbine house of reinforced concrete construction. The main civil engineering contractor was Richard Costain.
The exposed boilers were built by Babcock and Wilcox. This was apparently the last attempt by the C.E.G.B. at an outdoor design whereby an architecturally Modernist reaction against the "brick cathedral" tradition dictated that "uneconomic" and "non-functional" cladding of the boilers should be avoided. In its design West Thurrock closely followed Willington Power Station, Derbyshire. However, the exposure of the boilers apparently gave few practical advantages and resulted in problems of weatherproofing.
1970s The boilers, which had been designed to burn pulverised coal, were adapted to burn natural gas in addition to coal.
1985 Heavy-fuel oil burning facilities were added and used in combination with the coal-burning plant.
1994 Station closed.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Historic England