Doncaster Power Station refers to two coal-fired electricity generating stations situated in the centre of

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

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 ...

. Doncaster A provided electricity to the town from 1900 to 1958, and the B station from 1953 to 1983.

Doncaster A station

Doncaster Corporation was granted the by the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

, this permitted the corporation to supply electricity to the town. A power station was built in 1900 in Grey Friars' Road () near the River Don New Cut canal which provide access for coal barges and water for condensing steam in the plant. The station provided the electricity supply to the tram system from 1902.

Specification

By 1923 the plant comprised one 1,100 kW and two 3,000 kW turbo-alternators which provided a 3-phase, 50 Hz AC supply at 3,000 Volts. The DC plant comprised two 200 kW and one 300 kW reciprocating engines plus one 650 kW steam turbine providing a 230 and 460 Volt DC supply plus a 550 Volt DC traction current. The total installed generating capacity was 8,350 MW.

Operations

In 1923 the power station generated 5.83 GWh and sold 4.236 GWh which produced an income of £49,448 and a net surplus of revenue over expenses of £26,727. There were 6,041 connected consumers, an increase from 4,939 two years previously. In 1927 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 ...

(CEB) assumed responsibility across the country for directing the operation of ‘selected’ power stations and paying for their operation. Doncaster power station became a selected station. Doncaster Corporation had the right to buy the electricity they required from the Board. The CEB built the first stages of the National Grid between 1927 and 1933. Upon

nationalisation 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 contrasts with priv ...

of the British electricity supply industry in 1948 the ownership of Doncaster 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 res ...

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 Doncaster electricity undertaking were transferred to the

Yorkshire Electricity Board Yorkshire Electricity was an electricity distribution utility in England, serving much of Yorkshire and parts of Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. History Formed as the Yorkshire Electricity Board in 1948 as part of the nationalisa ...

. By 1954 the generating capacity of the station was 10 MW. In the final years the A station produced the following output: The A station was decommissioned in 1958 and was subsequently demolished. The site is now a 33 kV sub-station.

Doncaster B station

Doncaster B station was built by the

and was opened in 1953. It was located on Crimpsall Island, surrounded by the River Don and the

Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation (S&SY) is a system of navigable inland waterways ( canals and canalised rivers) in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. Chiefly based on the River Don, it runs for a length of and has 27 lo ...

(S&SYN). It received significant quantities of its coal by boat, to its own staithe, using the S&SYN.

Specification

The plant at the new station included eight Mitchell boilers each with an output capacity of 180,000 pounds per hour (22.7 kg/s) of steam. Four of the boilers delivered steam at 625 psi and 865 °F (43.1 bar and 463 °C). The other four supplied steam at 632 psi and 865 °F (43.6 bar and 463 °C). Condensing of steam and cooling were by circulating river water. There were two GEC 30 MW turbo-alternators, and two Brush 30 MW turbo-alternators, all generating at 11.6 kV and switched at 66 kV. The first generator was commissioned September 1953, the second July 1954, the third set February 1956 and the final set in June 1956.

Operations

The electricity output of the station in its first years was: There was a 132 kV electricity sub-station in the north-west of the ‘B’ power station site. This provided a connection to the National Grid. By 1971 the station comprised one 40 MW and three 30 MW turbo-alternators giving an installed output of 130 MW. The turbines were fed from boilers having a total output capacity of 1,440,000 lb/h (181.4 kg/s) of steam at 600

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 ...

(41.4 bar) and 454 °C. In 1971–2 the annual output from the station was 489.696

GWh A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

. In 1978–9 the output was 125.5 GWh and in 1981–2 the annual output was 2.063 GWh. Doncaster power station closed on 31 October 1983 when it had a generating capacity of 122 MW.

HM Prison Doncaster HM Prison Doncaster, is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's private prison, located in the Marshgate area of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The prison is operated by Serco. History Doncaster Prison was b ...

, a prison operated by

Serco Serco Group plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational military, defence, Healthcare, health, Space industry, space, private prison, justice, Human migration, migration, customer service, customer services, and transport company ...

, has been built on the power station's site. The 132 kV electricity sub-station on the site is extant (2020).

References

{{Yorkshire Powerstations Buildings and structures in Doncaster Coal-fired power stations in England Power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber