Thorpe Marsh Power Station was a 1 GW
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 ...
near
Barnby Dun
Barnby Dun is a village in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Together with Kirk Sandall it forms the civil parish of Barnby Dun with Kirk Sandall. It lies between Arksey and Stainforth. It is located about 4 miles north-east of Doncaste ...
in
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 ...
. The station was commissioned in 1963 and closed in 1994. In 2011, permission was given for the construction of a gas-fired power station on the site.
History
Construction and operation, (1959–1994)
Construction of the station began in 1959; it was built as a prototype for all the large modern power stations in the UK. It was commissioned between 1963 and 1965.
Thorpe Marsh was one of the CEGB's twenty steam power stations with the highest
thermal efficiency
In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency (\eta_) is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, steam turbine, steam engine, boiler, furnace, refrigerator, ACs etc.
For ...
; in 1963–4 the thermal efficiency was 31.50 per cent, 32.76 per cent in 1964–5, and 33.09 per cent in 1965–6.
There were 2 × 28 MW auxiliary gas turbines on the site, these had been commissioned in December 1966.
The plant was officially opened in 1967.
The station contained two 550 MW generating units with
cross compound turbines, supplied from a single boiler. Steam was supplied at at .
The annual electricity output of Thorpe Marsh was:
On 7 January 1973, four workmen died. A
coroner
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
's report gave a verdict of accidental death; subsequently the Factory Inspectorate began legal proceedings against 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) for breaches in safety provisions.
After the
privatisation of the CEGB in 1990, the station was operated by
National Power
National power is defined as the sum of all resources available to a nation in the pursuit of national objectives. Assessing the national power of political entities was already a matter of relevance during the classical antiquity, the Middle Ages ...
. The station subsequently closed in 1994.
Post closure (1994–)
The site was acquired by
Able UK
Able UK is a British industrial services company specialising in decommissioning of ships and offshore installations.
Overview
Able UK is a British industrial services company, operating primarily in the marine decommissioning and recycling bu ...
in 1995.
During the
2007 United Kingdom floods
A series of large floods occurred in parts of the United Kingdom during the summer of 2007. The worst of the flooding occurred across parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland on 14 June; East Riding of Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and English Midlan ...
, the 400 kV substation at the site was temporarily shut down on 27 June, whilst the 275 kV substation was not affected; operational service was fully restored by early 28 June.
In October 2011, the
Department of Energy and Climate Change
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the government of the United Kingdom created on 3 October 2008, by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take over some of the ...
approved the construction of a 1,500 MW
combined cycle gas turbine
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
power station at Thorpe Marsh by Thorpe Marsh Power Limited (parent Acorn Power Developments, see
Acorn Energy) with an estimated cost of £984 million.
Thorpe Marsh Power Limited proposed an initial capacity of 960 MW.
The proposed development would also require the construction of an gas pipeline from
Camblesforth
Camblesforth is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 Census the civil parish had a population of 1,526, increasing to 1,568 at the 2011 Census. The village is south of Selby and west of G ...
;
the gas pipeline was approved in 2016.
Able UK demolished the original power station's
cooling towers
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 t ...
in 2012.
In 2022 plans were unveiled to build a 1.4 GW / 3.1 GWh
battery energy storage system
A battery energy storage system (BESS), battery storage power station, battery energy grid storage (BEGS) or battery grid storage is a type of energy storage technology that uses a group of batteries in the grid to store electrical energy
Elec ...
on the site, named the "Thorpe Marsh Energy Park". A 1 GW / 2 GWh battery is also planned at the adjacent
Almholme site. Local news sources have highlighted the projects' potential in repurposing the old
power station's infrastructure.
References
Further reading
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External links
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* Images of derelict power station .
* Images from .
{{Yorkshire Powerstations
Coal-fired power stations in England
Buildings and structures in Doncaster
Power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber
Former power stations in England