The Lydney power station supplied electricity to of West

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England from 1923 until 1967. The supply area included the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

and

Nailsworth Nailsworth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds, on the A46 road, south of Stroud and about north-east of Bristol and Bat ...

. The station was owned by the West Gloucestershire Power Company Limited prior to the

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 station was closed in 1967.

History

West Gloucestershire Power Company Limited

The Norchard Syndicate Limited was established in 1921 to build a central power house to supply 300 square miles (777 km²) of West Gloucestershire including the coal fields of the Forest of Dean and industries in Stroud and Nailsworth. Norchard is a location in the Lyd Valley. In 1921 the Syndicate applied to the

Electricity Commissioners The Electricity Commissioners were a department of the United Kingdom government's Department for Transport, Ministry of Transport, which regulated the electric power industry, electricity supply industry from 1920 until nationalisation in 1948. ...

for permission to undertake the electricity scheme. The sanction was given by the commissioners in September 1921. The syndicate changed its name to the West Gloucestershire Power Company Limited, which was incorporated on 23 March 1922. With a capital of £235,000, work started on the construction of the power house at

Lydney Lydney is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been Bypass ( ...

()Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map: ''SO60 - C'' (includes: Awre; Hinton; Lydney; West Dean), publication date 1961 in 1922. The company raised further capital of £600,000 by the issue of stock and shares in June 1924. Key personnel of the company in 1924 were: * J. Davidson (Chairman) * R. M. Horne-Payne (Director) * D. Northall-Laurie (Director) * Harry S. Ellis (General Manager and Chief Engineer) * Arthur Ellis (Advisory Committee) * William B. Woodhouse (Advisory Committee) The company installed generating equipment in the power station as outlined below. The plant generated and ‘sent out’ the quantities of electricity shown in the table below. There is an aerial view of the power station in 1929. The sale of electricity generated an income and profit for the company.''The Times'', 15 June 1927, 25 June 1930, 12 March 1935, 18 March 1939, 25 March 1940. The British electricity supply industry was

nationalised 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 ...

in 1948 under the provisions of the

Electricity Act 1947 The Electricity Act 1947 ( 10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which nationalised, or bought into state control, the electricity supply industry in Great Britain. It established a central authority called t ...

( 10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54). The West Gloucestershire Power Company Limited electricity undertaking was abolished, ownership of Lydney 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 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 West Gloucestershire Power Company Limited were transferred to the South Wales Electricity Board (SWEB).

Equipment

The principal equipment installed at Lydney power station was: * 3 × Stirling boilers 40,000 lb/h (5.04 kg/s) steam conditions 260

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 ...

at 650 °F (17.93 bar at 343 °C) * 1 × Stirling boilers 35,000 lb/h (4.41 kg/s) steam conditions 260 psi at 650 °F (17.93 bar at 343 °C) The total evaporative capacity of the boilers was 155,000 lb/h (19.53 kg/s), these supplied steam to: * 2 × 5 MW Bellis- Parsons turbo-alternators, generating electricity at 6.6 kV. One commissioned March 1923, the second was commissioned in May 1923. * 1 × 7.5 MW Bellis-ASEA turbo-alternator, generating electricity at 6.6 kV. This was commissioned in June 1929. The output capacity of the station was 10 MW. The station was supplied with coal via a siding off the adjacent railway line. Cooling of the condenser was by water drawn from the River Lyd there was one wooden and one concrete

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 heat and cool the ...

. They had a capacity of 0.95 million gallons per hour (1.2 m³/second).

Operations

Operating data over the lifetime of the power station was as follows: The rise and fall of electricity generation at Lydney power station in GWh is as shown on the graph. Lydney power station was closed in 1967 and was later demolished.

References

{{Electricity generation in South West England Coal-fired power stations in England Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom Former power stations in England Buildings and structures in Gloucestershire Lydney

History

West Gloucestershire Power Company Limited

Equipment

Operations

See also

References