Hartshead Power Station was a
coal-fired power station situated at
Heyrod,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
in
North West England.
History
Preparations for a power station at Heyrod began in 1916 when of land were purchased. The station was opened in 1926 by the
Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Transport and Electricity Board.
The station began operation with three
Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...
12,500 kW turbo-alternators generating at the local SHMD supply frequency of 40 Hz. Later that year the station's output was changed to the nationally agreed standard of 50 Hz. In 1935, a major expansion of Hartshead began with the first of three new Metropolitan-Vickers 30,000 kW generating sets being commissioned, followed by the second set in 1943 and the third set in 1950.
The station's concrete cooling towers were constructed in the 1940s.
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
was delivered to the plant at
Millbrook railway sidings on the
Micklehurst Line
The Micklehurst Line was a railway line between Stalybridge, Cheshire, and Diggle junction in the West Riding of Yorkshire (now part of Greater Manchester). The line, approximately long, was also sometimes referred to as the Micklehurst Loop and ...
, situated on the opposite side of the
Huddersfield Narrow Canal
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is an inland waterway in northern England. It runs just under from Lock 1E at the rear of the University of Huddersfield campus, near Aspley Basin in Huddersfield, to the junction with the Ashton Canal at Whi ...
. The sidings were built in 1932 and had space to hold up to 130 12-ton wagons. Coal was fed into a hopper underneath the sidings before being transported on an enclosed
conveyor belt which emerged high above the valley to cross the
River Tame and canal before entering the station at a high level.
[Charlesworth, D (Editor): ''The Huddersfield Canals Towpath Guide'' page 55, Huddersfield Canal Society, 1981.]
The electricity output from Hartshead LP and HP power stations in the mid-1950s was:
[CEGB ''Annual report and Accounts'', 1961, 1962 & 1963]
It was partly converted to oil firing in the 1960s.
By 1971 the boilers had a steam output capacity of 1.52 million pounds per hour (191.5 kg/s). Steam was produced at low pressure 275 psi and 357 °F (18.96 bar and 181 °C) and at high pressure 615/620 psi and 443/449 °F (42.4/42.7 bar and 228/232 °C). In 1971 the generating plant comprised two 34 MW and one 33.25 MW turbo-alternators and the station had a rated capacity of 134.75 MW.
The station was closed on 29 October 1979 with a generating capacity of 64
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s.
It was demolished September 24, 1989, although part of the site is still used as an
electrical substation.
See also
*
Huddersfield Narrow Canal Pylon
References
External links
28DL- photographs of the power station past and present
{{North West Power Stations
Coal-fired power stations in England
Power stations in North West England
Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom