West Thurrock Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

at Stone Ness,

West Thurrock West Thurrock is an area, former civil parish and traditional Church of England parish in Thurrock, Essex, England, located 17.5 miles (28.1 km) east south-east of Charing Cross, London. In 1931 the parish had a population of 5,153. On 1 Apr ...

in Essex. The station was at the northern end of the

400 kV Thames Crossing The 400 kV Thames Crossing is an overhead power line crossing of the River Thames, between Botany Marshes in Swanscombe, Kent, and West Thurrock, Essex, England. Its towers are the tallest electricity pylons in the UK. The present crossing w ...

of the National Grid.

History

The station was built 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 Janua ...

and, unlike most of the power stations further up the Thames, West Thurrock was built on a 37 hectare green field site, 1.5 miles west of Grays. Construction, which included the piling and landfilling of the marshy riverside, took several years, starting in 1957 and continuing until 1965 – although the first generator was commissioned in 1962. It was the first CEGB station designed to exceed 1000 MW, having a final output of 1300 MW.'The power stations of the lower Thames', National Monuments Record Centre, September 1995. West Thurrock was one of the CEGB's twenty steam power stations with the highest

thermal efficiency In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency (\eta_) is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, steam turbine, steam engine, boiler, furnace, refrigerator, ACs etc. For a ...

; in 1963–4 the thermal efficiency was 35.54 per cent, 35.78 per cent in 1964–5, and 35.70 per cent in 1965–6. The architectural design was by Farmer and Dark.The station had two 200 MW units (built by CA Parsons and commissioned 1962 & 1963) and three of 300 MW units (by Associated Electrical Industries and commissioned 1964 & 1965) housed in a reinforced concrete turbine hall. The roof was of multiple transverse barrel vaults. The five boilers were built by

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...

and were unusual being open to the elements and were originally designed to burn pulverised coal. They were adapted to burn natural gas between 1971 and 1980, and

heavy fuel oil Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) is a category of fuel oils of a tar-like consistency. Also known as bunker fuel, or residual fuel oil, HFO is the result or remnant from the distillation and cracking process of petroleum. For this reason, HFO is contaminate ...

burning facilities were added in 1985. The total steam capacity of boilers was 8,445,000 lb/hr (1064.1 kg/s). Steam pressure and temperature at turbine stop valve was 2350 psi (162 bar) at 566 °C.''CEGB Statistical Yearbooks'' (various dates) CEGB, London. Ash from the boilers was sold to a local factory and used to make building blocks. The station had two tall chimneys made from reinforced concrete. After the UK's electric supply industry was

privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

in 1989, West Thurrock was operated by

National Power National power is defined as the sum of all resources available to a nation in the pursuit of national objectives. Assessing the national power of political entities was already a matter of relevance during the classical antiquity, the middle ages ...

. In 1992, one of the station's units were decommissioned. The station's other four units were decommissioned in 1993. The closure left a stockpile of nearly half a million tonnes of coal, which was transported downstream to the nearby Tilbury Power Station by Rhine barge. After demolition part of the site was redeveloped as a works making industrial chemicals for the adjacent

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

works and using the former coaling jetty. A proposal to build a large postal

sorting office A sorting office or processing and distribution center (P&DC; name used by the United States Postal Service (USPS)) is any location where postal operators bring mail after collection for sorting into batches for delivery to the addressee, which ...

on the former fly-ash lagoons proved controversial due to the wildlife that had colonised the site. An unusual feature of the site is the northern end of the pair of 192-metre tall pylons supporting the 400 kV link across the river Thames.

Electricity output

Electricity output for West Thurrock power station over the period 1964–1987 was as follows:CEGB ''Annual Report and Accounts'', various years West Thurrock annual electricity output GWh.

References

External links

*
West Thurrock Power Station: The End of a River Side Giant 1957 – 1993
{{East of England powerstations Thurrock Coal-fired power stations in England Power stations in the East of England Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom Power stations on the River Thames Former power stations in England Port of London