Harrogate power station supplied electricity to the town of

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...

and the surrounding area from 1897 to 1960. The power station was built by the Harrogate Corporation which operated it until the nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948.

History

The Harrogate Corporation applied for a Provisional Order under the ''Electric Lighting Acts'' to generate and supply electricity to the town of Harrogate. An Order was granted by the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

and was confirmed by Parliament through the ''Electric Lighting Orders Confirmation (No. 1) Act 1891'' (54 & 55 Vict. c. xlix). The power station was built north of the town off Ripon Road Harrogate (54°00’03”N 01°33’17”W); it began to supply electricity on 14 April 1897. The site was adjacent to the

Oak Beck Oak Beck is a watercourse that flows eastwards across the northern part of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. The beck flows through a broad V-shaped valley, before emptying into the River Nidd at Bilton, just upstream from the Nidd Gorge ...

which provided make-up water to the station's spray

cooling pond A cooling pond is a man-made body of water primarily formed for the purpose of cooling heated water and/or to store and supply cooling water to a nearby power plant or industrial facility such as a petroleum refinery, pulp and paper mill, chemica ...

. The

Central Electricity Board The United Kingdom Central Electricity Board (CEB) was established by the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926. It had the duty to supply electricity to authorised electricity undertakers, to determine which power stations would be 'selected' stations ...

built the first stages of the National Grid between 1927 and 1933. Harrogate power station were connected to the 132 kV electricity grid. In 1935

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

ceded its electricity supply rights to the Harrogate electricity undertaking. The British electricity supply industry was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948 under the provisions of the ''Electricity Act 1947'' (10 & 11 Geo. 6 c. 54). The Harrogate electricity undertaking was abolished, ownership of Harrogate power station was vested in 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 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 ...

and 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 ...

(CEGB). At the same time the electricity distribution and sales responsibilities of the Harrogate undertaking were transferred to the North Eastern Electricity Board (NEEB). Following nationalisation Harrogate power station became part of the Harrogate electricity supply district, covering an area of 192,084 acres (77,734 ha). Harrogate power station was closed in 1960.

Equipment specification

Plant in 1898

The plant in 1898 comprised Belliss and McLaren engines coupled directly to Ferranti and

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alternators. The capacity of the generating plant was 575 kW and the maximum load was 156 kW.

Plant in 1923

By 1923 the plant at Harrogate comprised boilers delivering a total of 50,000 lb/h (6.3 kg/s) of steam to: * 1 × 300 kW

turbo-alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Gor ...

generating alternating current (AC) * 1 × 1,000 kW turbo-alternator generating AC * 1 × 1,200 kW turbo-alternator generating AC * 1 × 1,250 kW turbo-alternator generating AC In addition there was one 400 kW oil-fired engine driven alternator generating AC The total generating capacity was 4,150 kW.

Plant in 1954

By 1954 the plant comprised: * Boilers: ** 2 × Holdsworth 12,000 lb/hr (1.51 kg/s), steam conditions were 180

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviation ...

at 600 °F (12.4 bar and 316 °C) ** 2 × Yarrow 50,000 lb/h (6.3 kg/s), steam conditions were 300 psi and 700 °F (20.7 bar and 371 °C), steam was supplied to: * Generators (turbo-alternators): ** 1 × 1.875 MW Brush ** 1 × 4.5 MW F & C, 3.66 kV ** 1 × 8.0 MW

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, 11 kV ** 1 × 1.5 MW F & C, 3.46 kV The total installed generating capacity was 15.875 MW. Water cooling was by spray coolers and pond, the circulation capacity was 0.95 million gallons per hour (1.2 m³/s).

Operations

Operating data 1921–23

The electricity supply data for the period 1921–23 was: Electricity Loads on the system were: Revenue from the sale of current (in 1923) was £52,102; the surplus of revenue over expenses was £29,420.

Operating data 1946

In 1946 Harrogate power station supplied 9,501 MWh of electricity; the maximum output load was 9,076 kW.Electricity Commissioners, Generation of Electricity in Great Britain year ended 31 December 1946 HMSO 1947 p.9

Operating data 1954–60

Operating data for the period 1954–58 was:

Harrogate Electricity District

Following nationalisation in 1948 Harrogate power station became part of the Harrogate electricity supply district, covering 192,084 acres (77,734 ha). The number of consumers and electricity sold in the Harrogate district was: In 1958 the number of units sold to categories of consumers was:

References

{{Reflist Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom Coal-fired power stations in England Former power stations in England Buildings and structures in Harrogate