Elland 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 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
situated adjacent to the Manchester to Wakefield railway line and on a loop of the
River Calder, north east of the town of
Elland
Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland was recorded as ''Elant'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. It ...
in
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exis ...
. The station occupied a site of some 65 acres.
History
The construction of Elland Power Station was planned in 1945. It was designed and built by the then Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), Northern Project Group. Building work began in 1951 and the project cost £10 million. The first generating unit began generating electricity on 7 August 1959, but the station did not officially open and begin generating at full capacity until 28 April 1961.
The station used 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 ...
180 MW generating sets.
Later in the 1960s, the station won an award for its clean and efficient operation. There were three boilers (two John Brown, one Yarrow) each rated for 69 kg/s of steam; steam conditions were 62.06 bar and 482 °C. The cooling towers were built by Davenport Engineering.
The generating capacity, electricity output and thermal efficiency were as shown in the table.
Coal from the Yorkshire coalfields was delivered by train on the adjacent
Calder Valley Line
The Calder Valley line (also previously known as the Caldervale line) is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail routes ...
and moved around the site using 0-4-0 shunters. ''Elland No. 1'', a CEGB 0-4-0 diesel shunter is preserved at
Mangapps Railway Museum
The Mangapps Railway Museum (previously Mangapps Farm Railway Museum) is a heritage railway centre located near Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Ca ...
, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
On 22 November 1971, the station's
conveyor belt was destroyed in a fire.
[ After the ]UK's
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
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, the station was operated by PowerGen.[ although the associated switching substation was retained and remains in use.
]
References
External links
Image on Historic England
{{Yorkshire Powerstations
Buildings and structures in Calderdale
Coal-fired power stations in England
Power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber
Elland
1959 establishments in England
1991 disestablishments in England
Energy infrastructure completed in 1959
Buildings and structures demolished in 1996
Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom
Former coal-fired power stations in the United Kingdom
Former power stations in England