Ince Power Station
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Ince Power Station refers to two demolished
power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...
s near
Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south of ...
in Cheshire, North West England.


Ince A

When the
uranium enrichment Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...
plant at Capenhurst opened in 1949, it was realised that its power demand would require the construction of a new power station nearby. Rendel, Palmer & Tritton were appointed as the construction's civil engineering consultants, while 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 ...
engineered the station's electrical and mechanical plant. The station was built on an plot of land acquired as a result of tidal borings. The main buildings were constructed where the load-bearing
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
was at its highest level. After the removal of of
topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic matt ...
it was possible to construct the buildings directly upon hard bearing sand, removing the necessity of piled foundations. However, the
cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...
s and north chimney did require piled foundations as the sandstone foundation sloped away from the power station site. The station's main buildings were of steel-framed construction. The boiler house was clad using cellactite sheet cladding, and was of a semi-outdoor construction due to the speed of construction required. The turbine hall was a brick building with
prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term ...
stone used on window and door surrounds. The building's roof was made from asbestos cement. The floors in the station were made of quarry tile and
terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...
. The station's coal bunkers were steel plate and girder constructions. The entire building measured long by wide, containing approximately 3,800 tonnes of steel. The station also had two
chimneys A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typ ...
, made from brick with internal diameters of . They were supported upon concrete plinths. The administration and amenity block was built next to the station, and connected to the turbine hall by an overhead access bridge. The block contained the station's control room, along with laboratories, administration offices, a canteen, lockers and showers. It was heated by excess steam bled from the turbines. Ince A Power Station was opened on 9 October 1957 by Lord Citrine, the chairman of the Central Electricity Authority. The station used four GEC 60-
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 ...
(MW) turbo alternators, giving the station a total generation capacity of 240 MW. The first set was commissioned in November 1954 followed by the other sets in March 1955, December 1955, and finally September 1956. Each turbine was supplied with steam from an International Combustion Limited coal-fired
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
at a rate of per hour, and at a temperature of 480 °C. Each boiler and turbine set operated as an independent generating unit, with no interconnection of boilers. It was also realised midway through the station's construction that the station should be capable of duel firing heavy fuel oil. Electricity was generated at 12.8
kilovolt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). Defi ...
s (kV). It was then passed through a transformer which increased the voltage to 132 kV, before passing into the national grid. The generating capacity, electricity output and
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 ...
were as shown in the table. Coal was delivered to the station's coal storage area by
rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...
from the East Midlands coalfields. Water for the station's systems was taken from the River Dee at Chester, and taken to the station by a
pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
built by the West Cheshire Water Board to serve the power station and the uranium enrichment plant. The water was cooled using four hyperboloid natural draft
cooling towers A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...
. Each tower was tall and had a base diameter, with a cooling capacity of 2.75 million gallons per hour.


Ince B

Ince B Power Station built as part of the Dash for Oil in the UK during the 1960s, schemed as being a
base load The base load (also baseload) is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants, dispatchable generation, or by a collection of smaller intermittent e ...
operating power station. The choice of the Ince site for a large new oil-fired station was politically influenced as the government wanted a station in the North West of England, which led to a rumour that the power station was built with the only purpose of creating jobs. The station's construction suffered lengthy delays. Its transmission system was inadequate to handle the large flow of electricity from the
nuclear power station A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces ele ...
s to the north. There were also faults with the station's
rotor Rotor may refer to: Science and technology Engineering * Rotor (electric), the non-stationary part of an alternator or electric motor, operating with a stationary element so called the stator *Helicopter rotor, the rotary wing(s) of a rotorcraft ...
s, which required them returning to the manufacturer's works. The station eventually used two notional spares. Low productivity among construction staff was also a problem, almost leading to the abandonment of the project. The station had eventually begun operating by March 1984, when it achieved the second-highest thermal efficiency in the country for a plant of its size, after Pembroke Power Station in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. The station occupied a site. Its boiler house measured by and was tall. The turbine hall was by and tall. There were two boilers rated at 447 kg/s, steam conditions were 158.58 bar at 538 °C with reheat to 538 °C. There were two 500-MW
Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...
generators, along with two 25-MW Avon
gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
s. In 1993, one of the station's two units, Unit 5, was converted to burn
orimulsion Orimulsion is a registered trademark name for a bitumen-based fuel that was developed for industrial use by Intevep, the Research and Development Affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), following earlier collaboration on oil emulsions with ...
, its boilers being provided by Clarke Chapman Ltd. The station B had a single chimney, with a diameter of which tapered to . The station used a single hyperboloid induced draft cooling tower, which stood tall. Fuel oil was supplied directly to the station by a pipeline, directly from Shell's Stanlow Oil Refinery. Oil was also brought to the station by ship, via a berth on the Manchester Ship Canal. The station was controlled by two GEC 2050 computers. The generating capacity, electricity output and thermal efficiency were as shown in the table.CEGB Statistical Yearbooks, various dates, CEGB, London. The intensive use in the year ending 31 March 1985 was associated with the 1984/5 miners strike when the availability of coal for coal-fired power stations was severely limited.


Closure and demolition

The A Station was closed and demolished in the mid-1980s, though its single remaining cooling tower was left standing until 1999. The B Station ceased generating electricity in March 1997 and demolition of the structures commenced a couple of years later. The station's chimney was demolished on 28 April 1999. The station's cooling tower was demolished on 5 December 1999 along with the A Station's remaining cooling tower.


References


External links


An Unofficial Ince 'B' Power Station Web Site
– Website with cross sectional diagrams and photos of Ince B Power Station {{North West Power Stations Power stations in North West England Buildings and structures in Cheshire Former power stations in England 1957 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England