Blackwall Point Power Station

Blackwall Point Power Station

Blackwall Point Power Station from Greenwich Park, 1973
Location of Blackwall Point Power Station in Greater London
Country England
Location Greenwich, London
Coordinates 51°29′52″N 0°00′41″E / 51.497800°N 0.011500°E / 51.497800; 0.011500Coordinates: 51°29′52″N 0°00′41″E / 51.497800°N 0.011500°E / 51.497800; 0.011500
Commission date 1900
Decommission date 1981
Operator(s) Central Electricity Generating Board
Thermal power station
Primary fuel Coal-fired
Power generation
Nameplate capacity 100.5 MW[1]
grid reference TQ3961079623

Blackwall Point Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the east side of the Greenwich Peninsula, in London. An early station from the 1890s was replaced in the 1950s by a new station, which ceased operation in 1980. The station was constructed on a three-acre site at the north-west end of River Way to the south-east of the South Metropolitan Gasworks, since redeveloped as East Parkside.

History

The first Blackwall Point power station was built on the site of the East Greenwich tide mill by Blackheath and Greenwich Electric Light Co. and began to supply the area in 1900. By the time it closed in 1947 it had a capacity of 15 MW.[2]

Blackwall Point Power Station seen from the east, 1973

The replacement station which opened in 1952 was the first London power station designed to be fired exclusively by pulverised coal. Coal from overhead bunkers was ground to a powder by pressurised mills and transported to the furnace by air fans.[3]

The station was equipped with three nominal 30 MW turbo alternators supplied by the English Electric Company, giving the station a generating capacity of 90 MW. Steam was supplied by three coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, with condenser cooling water taken from the river.[4]

The first turbo-alternator set was commissioned in the summer of 1951, subsequent sets coming into use by the spring of 1952.

Blackwall Point was originally in the London Division of the British Electricity Authority (BEA), which later became the Central Electricity Generating Board.

The station closed on 26 October 1981 with a capacity of 86 MW.[5] Today the only visible remains of the station is the coaling pier in the Thames.

References

  1. ↑ Electrical Review,1 June 1962
  2. ↑ Mary Mills, Greenwich Marsh - The 300 years before the Dome, London: M.Wright, 1999, ISBN 0-9535245-0-7
  3. ↑ Frederick Gair, Blackwall Point Power Station, Greenwich Industrial History Society Newsletter, Vol 7 Issue 1, January 2004
  4. ↑ Keith Doyle, Blackwall Point Power Station, Greenwich Industrial History Society Newsletter, Vol 2 Issue 4, August 1999,
  5. ↑ Mr. Redmond (16 January 1984). "Coal-fired Power Stations". Hansard. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
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