Belvedere Power Station was an oil-fired 480 MW power station on the river Thames at
Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
* Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...
, south-east London. It was commissioned in 1960 and operated for 26 years. It was decommissioned in 1986 and was subsequently demolished in 1993–94. The site has been redeveloped as industrial warehouses, although the fuelling jetty is extant.
History
Belvedere power station was developed by the
British Electricity Authority
The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...
and subsequently by the
Central Electricity Authority
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) was a body that managed and operated the electricity supply industry in England and Wales between 1 April 1955 and 31 December 1957. The CEA replaced the earlier British Electricity Authority (BEA) as a r ...
(1955–57) and from 1958 by the
Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
.
It was constructed between 1954 and 1960 on a riverside site originally acquired by the West Kent Electric Company in 1919.
The site was opposite the
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
plant at
Dagenham
Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...
. Construction was initially undertaken by the Construction Department of the BEA's London Division, then by the Southern Project Group of the CEGB.
Mowlem
Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006.
History
The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generati ...
s were the building contractors.
The architectural design was by
Farmer and Dark. The main building was a steel framed structure with the turbine hall to the west and the taller boiler house to the east and the control room in the centre of the block. The walls were clad in corrugated
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
.
The turbine hall was lit by skylights. Two 128 metre tall precast concrete chimneys were located to the east of the boiler house. Three 14,000 tonne oil tanks were located to the south-east of the site.
The first half of the station, commissioned in 1960, comprised four low-pressure boilers (John Brown Land Boilers Ltd.) each with a capacity of 550,000 lb/hr (69.3 kg/s) producing steam at 950 psi and 925 °F (65.5 bar and 496 °C) and four 60 MW turbo-alternators (English Electric Co Ltd).
Advances in technology meant that the second half of the station, commissioned in 1961–2, was equipped with two high pressure boilers rated at 1,600,000 lb/hr (201.6 kg/s) producing steam at 1600 psi and 1010/1005 °F (110 kg/s and 543/541 °C). There were two high-pressure 120 MW units, also by John Brown.
The station therefore had a total generating capacity of 480 MW.
[''CEGB Statistical Yearbook'' (various editions 1963-1987) CEGB, London]
Cooling water was abstracted from, and returned to, the tidal river Thames. Seven pumps circulated water at a rate of 21 million gallons per hour (26.5 m
3/sec).
Oil was shipped from Shell Haven refinery further down the river; and was delivered to 192 metre long jetty on the river.
From 1970 to 1973 the 120 MW units at Belvedere were amongst the CEGB's 20 stations with the highest thermal efficiencies.
The 120 MW units had an average thermal efficiency of 34.13 per cent. Belvedere's overall thermal efficiency in 1971 was 31.67 per cent.
Electricity output
Electricity was generated at 11.8 kV (60 MW units) and at 13.8 kV (120 MW units).
Electricity output from Belvedere power station over the period 1961-1987 was as follows.
Belvedere annual electricity output GWh.
The intensive use of the oil-fired station in 1985 was in the context of the 1984-85 miners' strike.
A line from the nearby 132kV grid station skirted the
Crossness Sewage Works
The Crossness Sewage Treatment Works is a sewage treatment plant located at Crossness in the London Borough of Greenwich. It was opened in 1865 and is Europe's second largest sewage treatment works, after its counterpart Beckton Sewage Treatment ...
to the
132kV Thames Crossing of the
CEGB
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
. This was the Belvedere-Barking/Crowlands circuit. It was decommissioned in the mid 1980s.
Decommissioning
In 1982 two of the 60 MW turbo-alternators were decommissioned, the operational capacity then became 2 × 60 MW and 2 × 120 MW. Belvedere power station was decommissioned in 1986 and was subsequently demolished in 1993–4.
A new generating station, the
Belvedere Incinerator
Cory is a recycling and waste management company based in London. Originally founded as William Cory & Son in 1896, the company has operated vessels on the River Thames for more than 125 years, transporting a range of commodities and materials in ...
has recently been built to the west of the site.
Incidents
In 1955 it was reported that four men had been overcome with fumes at the bottom of a 40 ft. manhole at Belvedere power station. Three members of the Kent fire brigade received the British Empire Medal for saving them.
In 1959 a radioactive iridium isotope went missing from a lorry which was travelling from Belvedere power station to Derby.
The following day it was found in West London.
References
{{London Powerstations
Oil-fired power stations in England
Former power stations in London
Former power stations in England
Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom
Power stations on the River Thames
Port of London
Buildings and structures demolished in 1993