Stafford power station supplied electricity to the town of

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

, England and the surrounding area from 1895 to 1958. It was owned and operated by Stafford Corporation prior to the nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948. The power station was redeveloped in the 1920s, but after 1935 it was a standby plant used at times of peak demand. Stafford power station was decommissioned in 1958.

History

In 1890 Stafford Corporation applied for a Provisional Order under the ''Electric Lighting Acts'' to generate and supply electricity to the town. This 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. 8) Act 1890'' (54 & 55 Vict. c. cxciii). The power station was built north of the corporation gas works near the

River Sow The River Sow is a tributary of the River Trent in Staffordshire, England, and is the river that flows through Stafford. Course The river rises to the south of Loggerheads, near Broughton and flows south-east beside the villages of Fairoak, ...

(52°48'31"N 2°07'18"W) and first supplied electricity on 15 October 1895. Stafford power station was operated under the direction of 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 ...

from 1 April 1934. From 1935 it was used as a standby station.

Equipment specification

The original plant at Stafford power station comprised Marshall

compound engine A compound engine is an engine that has more than one stage for recovering energy from the same working fluid, with the exhaust from the first stage passing through the second stage, and in some cases then on to another subsequent stage or even st ...

s coupled by ropes to Elwell-Parker dynamos. In 1898 the generating capacity was 198 kW and the maximum load was 80 kW, there were 6,200 lamps on the circuits.

Plant 1923

By 1923 the generating plant comprised: * Coal-fired boilers generating up to 62,000 lb/h (7.8 kg/s) of

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

which was supplied to: * Generators: ** 1 × 150 kW

reciprocating engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

driving a generator ** 1 × 220 kW reciprocating engine driving a generator ** 1 × 500 kW reciprocating engine driving a generator ** 1 × 500 kW steam turbo-generator ** 1 × 1,000 kW steam

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 ...

** 1 × 1,600 kW steam turbo-alternator These machines gave a total generating capacity of 2,600 kW of

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

and 1,370 kW of

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even ...

. A variety of electricity supplies were available to consumers: * 3-phase,

50 Hz The utility frequency, (power) line frequency (American English) or mains frequency (British English) is the nominal frequency of the oscillations of alternating current (AC) in a wide area synchronous grid transmitted from a power station to th ...

AC at 6,000 Volts, 400 and 230 Volts. * 420 & 210 Volts DC.

New plant 1925 & 1927

New plant was commissioned in 1925 and 1927. * Boilers: ** 1 × Stirling boiler 12,000 lb/h (1.5 kg/s) ** 1 × Stirling boiler 15,000 lb/h (1.9 kg/s) ** 2 × Stirling boilers 20,000 lb/h (2.5 kg/s) ** 1 × Stirling boiler 40,000 lb/h (5.0 kg/s) The total evaporative capacity of the boilers was 107,000 lb/hr (13.5 kg/s). Steam conditions were 180 psi and 525°F (12.4

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

, 274°C), and 200

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 550 & 590°F (13.8 bar at 288 & 310°C) , steam was supplied to: * Turbo-alternators: ** 2 ×

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

3.0 MW turbo-alternator, generating at 6.6 kV. Condenser cooling water was drawn from the River Sow.

Operations

Operating data 1898

In 1898 82,172 kWh was sold to 90 consumers, plus 41,729 kWh for public lamps.

Operating data 1921–23

The operating data for the period 1921–23 is shown in the table:

Operating data 1934–36

Under the terms of the ''Electricity (Supply) Act 1926'' (16 & 17 Geo. 5 c. 51) the

(CEB) was established in 1926. The CEB identified high efficiency ‘selected’ power stations that would supply electricity most effectively. Stafford power station was operated under the direction of the CEB from 1934. The CEB also constructed the national grid (1927–33) to connect power stations within a region. The operating data for 1934-36 was:

Operating data 1946

In 1946 Stafford power station sent out 5,035 MWh of electricity, the maximum load was 7432 kW. 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 Stafford electricity undertaking was abolished, ownership of Stafford 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 Stafford electricity undertaking were transferred to the

Midlands Electricity Board The Midlands Electricity Board was the public sector utility company responsible for the purchase of electricity from the electricity generator (the Central Electricity Generating Board from 1958) and its distribution and sale of electricity t ...

(MEB).

Operating data 1954–58

Operating data for the period 1954–58 is shown in the table:

Closure

Stafford power station was decommissioned in 1958. The buildings were demolished and the area has been redeveloped with commercial facilities.

References

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