Barton Power Station was a

coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...

on the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...

Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the metropolitan borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the la ...

, near Eccles,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The construction of the station began in 1920 and operation began in 1923. The station's original equipment consisted of 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 ...

27.5 MW turbo-alternators, nine

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. is an American energy technology and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio. Historically, the company is best known for their stea ...

chain-grate stoked boilers, Mather & Platt auxiliary equipment and

British Thomson-Houston British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was a British engineering and heavy industry, heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Originally founded to sell products from the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, it soon became a manufac ...

switchgear In an electric power system, a switchgear is composed of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment. Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to allow work to ...

. The station supplied electricity to an area of 3,100 square kilometers and was one of the most advanced power stations of the time. Coal was delivered to the station in

barges A barge is typically a flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and marine water environments. The first modern barges were pull ...

, using the Bridgewater Canal. Steam condensing and cooling was by water abstracted from the canal. The station was extended in 1928 with the addition of a three new Babcock & Willcox boilers at 130,000Ib/hr. One of the boilers uses pulverised fuel the others uses conventional graters. This powers a Metropolitan-Vickers a 40 MW 6,600 Volt turbo alternator with a 1MW house set on the same shaft. This bought the installed capacity up to 122.5 MW. in 1938 a further extension was made with a 50 MW set in 1938. In 1972 it had one 39 MW operational set and one 51.5 MW set. Thee boilers delivered 770,000 lb/h (97 kg/s) of steam at 350

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

(24.1 bar) and 371/441 °C. In that year the station sent out 72.149 GWh, the load factor was 11.9 per cent and the thermal efficiency was 17.86 per cent. The station was closed on 18 March 1974 with a reduced generating capacity of 69 MW. At the time the station was co-firing

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

. The station was then demolished in 1978 and 1979. The first chimney was demolished in June 1979. A B&Q store now stands on the site of the station.

References

External links

"Reinforced-Concrete Chimney Towers at the Barton Power-Station." By ARNOLD ATHERTON BSc.
{{Authority control Coal-fired power stations in England Power stations in North West England Demolished buildings and structures in Greater Manchester Eccles, Greater Manchester Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References

External links