Carville Power Station
Encyclopedia
Carville Power Station was a coal-fired power station
situated in Wallsend
near Newcastle upon Tyne
, in North East England
. Two power stations stood on the site over the years; Carville A Power Station, the first station on the site, and Carville B Power Station. Carville power station was a major factor in increasing the productivity of the neighbouring shipyard
s, engineering works and coal mines by providing them with a cheap and reliable source of electricity. It also played a major role in enabling the electrification of the Tyneside railways and tramways.
(NESCo) built their first power station at Pandon Dene
in 1890. As electricity demand grew they moved their main generating site to Neptune Bank
, near Wallsend
in 1901. Once again, as demand grew, they ran out of space for further development at this site and so built another new generating station in the Carville area of Wallsend. The new station was built on a 15 acres (6.1 ha) site with frontage to the River Tyne
. The Carville station was built so as to be available for very large extensions. It was opened in 1904, and at the time was the largest power station in the United Kingdom.
Prior to the First World War, the station was the site of NESCo's first Control Room for the efficient central control of their power stations and substations. The idea attracted considerable interest from power supply engineers from around the world, leading to it becoming common practice amongst all the large electricity authorities in England.
Carville A power station was closed in 1932 after the opening of Dunston B power station, although it had largely been out of use since 1926.
. The station's design set the pattern for power station layout and design for most of the early twentieth century, as it was the first in the world to use the "unit system" of layout, whereby each boiler and turbine generating set is directly connected electrically to a alternator, and can work independently from any other generating unit in the station. This system has remained popular throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. The station's boiler houses and turbine hall were of steel frame
construction clad with corrugated iron, with the boiler houses was built at right angles to the turbine hall. Each of the three boiler houses had its own chimney. This layout allowed for long lengths of steam-piping to be avoided, and for each battery of boilers to be arranged opposite the generating set which it feeds in the turbine hall.
Initially the station used two 3,500 kilowatt (kW) and two 1,500 kW turbo-alternators, all produced by C. A. Parsons and Company
and fitted with electric driven surface condenser pumps and auxiliary pumps. This gave the station a generating capacity of 10,000 kW. When built, the larger 3,500 kW units were double the capacity of any steam turbines that had been built up until that point, and were then tested to be operating at over 5,000 kW in 1907.
Steam was provided by ten 1,000 HP Babcock and Wilcox
marine type boilers and two Green's economizer
s. The station generated three-phase
alternating current
of 6 kV, which was distributed through NESCo's high voltage underground network.
The station was extended in 1907. An identical boiler house to the first was built and three 5,000 kW turbo-alternators were installed. This expansion brough the stations total generating capacity to 25,000 kW.
(NER). From the sidings the coal was carried over a steel trestle
by an electric locomotive, before being unloaded directly into bunkers in the boiler house. From these bunkers the coal was conveyed to the stoker-hoppers by automatic weighing apparatus. The ash waste from the coal being burned discharged from the boilers by automatic doors to a conveyor, which emptied into an ash-bunker, from where empty coal-trucks could be filled.
Condensing water was taken directly from the front on River Tyne, where a pump house was constructed, fitted with electric driven pumps. Circulating water was taken from a combination of wells and mains water.
The first electricity produced by the station was provided to the NER for the electrification of their North Tyneside Loop
, for the integration of the Tyneside Electrics
. From the station, feeder cables ran to various substations
to provide power for the railway, and these substations were interconnected with older substations for the supply of power and lighting to Newcastle upon Tyne, and power to the shipyards and other riverside manufactories of Tyneside.
Once the station was operating, NESCo were required to comply with terms agreed with the electrical undertakings in the north east part of County Durham to supply electricity for ship-building and other purposes on the south side of the River Tyne. A tunnel 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter and at a depth of 120 feet (36.6 m) was driven underneath the River between the power station and Hebburn
.
. The station was now equipped to supply power to over 60 square miles (155.4 km²); from Shilbottle
in Northumberland
, right down to Malton
in North Yorkshire
. Carville B long held the record as the most economical power station in the world. The station took this record in 1914 when some of its units were completed, taking the record from Fisk Generating Station
in Chicago, Illinois. Carville had a economy of only 10.05 lb of steam consumed per kilowatt hour generated when all five units were operating at full load. The pressure of the steam used in the station was at 275 psi, and at a temperature of 700 degrees Farenheit; this was the highest steam pressure adopted by any electric supply company in England. The station used metal clad switchgear.
When the UK's national grid distribution system was brought into use in 1932, the station in common with all other NESCo-owned power stations had to be converted from the 40 hertz
(Hz) frequency as used by the North Eastern grid system to the 50 Hz frequency used by the new national system.
Fossil fuel power plant
A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...
situated in Wallsend
Wallsend
Wallsend is an area in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 42,842.-Romans:...
near Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, in North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
. Two power stations stood on the site over the years; Carville A Power Station, the first station on the site, and Carville B Power Station. Carville power station was a major factor in increasing the productivity of the neighbouring shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s, engineering works and coal mines by providing them with a cheap and reliable source of electricity. It also played a major role in enabling the electrification of the Tyneside railways and tramways.
History
The Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply CompanyNewcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company
The North Eastern Electric Supply Company was responsible for the supply of electricity to a large amount of North East England, prior to the nationalisation of the British electricity industry with the Electricity Act 1947...
(NESCo) built their first power station at Pandon Dene
Pandon Dene Power Station
Pandon Dene Power Station was an early coal-fired power station situated on the Pandon Dene, to the east of Newcastle upon Tyne.-History:At the outset of their operations in 1889, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company were confined to operating within the eastern half of Newcastle...
in 1890. As electricity demand grew they moved their main generating site to Neptune Bank
Neptune Bank Power Station
Neptune Bank Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated on the River Tyne at Wallsend near Newcastle upon Tyne. Commissioned in 1901 by the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company, the station was the first in the world to provide electricity for purposes other than domestic and...
, near Wallsend
Wallsend
Wallsend is an area in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 42,842.-Romans:...
in 1901. Once again, as demand grew, they ran out of space for further development at this site and so built another new generating station in the Carville area of Wallsend. The new station was built on a 15 acres (6.1 ha) site with frontage to the River Tyne
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...
. The Carville station was built so as to be available for very large extensions. It was opened in 1904, and at the time was the largest power station in the United Kingdom.
Prior to the First World War, the station was the site of NESCo's first Control Room for the efficient central control of their power stations and substations. The idea attracted considerable interest from power supply engineers from around the world, leading to it becoming common practice amongst all the large electricity authorities in England.
Carville A power station was closed in 1932 after the opening of Dunston B power station, although it had largely been out of use since 1926.
Design and specification
The station was designed by the British electrical engineering consultants, Merz & McLellanMerz & McLellan
Merz and McLellan was a leading British electrical engineering consultancy based in Newcastle.-History:The firm was founded by Charles Merz and William McLellan in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902 when McLellan joined Merz's existing firm established in 1899...
. The station's design set the pattern for power station layout and design for most of the early twentieth century, as it was the first in the world to use the "unit system" of layout, whereby each boiler and turbine generating set is directly connected electrically to a alternator, and can work independently from any other generating unit in the station. This system has remained popular throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. The station's boiler houses and turbine hall were of steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
construction clad with corrugated iron, with the boiler houses was built at right angles to the turbine hall. Each of the three boiler houses had its own chimney. This layout allowed for long lengths of steam-piping to be avoided, and for each battery of boilers to be arranged opposite the generating set which it feeds in the turbine hall.
Initially the station used two 3,500 kilowatt (kW) and two 1,500 kW turbo-alternators, all produced by C. A. Parsons and Company
C. A. Parsons and Company
C. A. Parsons and Company was a British engineering firm which was once one of the largest employers on Tyneside.-History:The Company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1889 to produce turbo-generators, his own invention. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the company was producing...
and fitted with electric driven surface condenser pumps and auxiliary pumps. This gave the station a generating capacity of 10,000 kW. When built, the larger 3,500 kW units were double the capacity of any steam turbines that had been built up until that point, and were then tested to be operating at over 5,000 kW in 1907.
Steam was provided by ten 1,000 HP Babcock and Wilcox
Babcock and Wilcox
The Babcock & Wilcox Company is a U.S.-based company that provides design, engineering, manufacturing, construction and facilities management services to nuclear, renewable, fossil power, industrial and government customers worldwide. B&W's boilers supply more than 300,000 megawatts of installed...
marine type boilers and two Green's economizer
Economizer
Economizers , or economisers , are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform another useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, powerplant, and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning uses are...
s. The station generated three-phase
Three-phase
In electrical engineering, three-phase electric power systems have at least three conductors carrying voltage waveforms that are radians offset in time...
alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
of 6 kV, which was distributed through NESCo's high voltage underground network.
The station was extended in 1907. An identical boiler house to the first was built and three 5,000 kW turbo-alternators were installed. This expansion brough the stations total generating capacity to 25,000 kW.
Operations
Coal burned in the station was delivered to the station's sidings on the Riverside Branch of the North Eastern RailwayNorth Eastern Railway
North Eastern Railway could refer to:*North Eastern Railway *North Eastern Railway *North Eastern Railway *North Eastern Railway...
(NER). From the sidings the coal was carried over a steel trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
by an electric locomotive, before being unloaded directly into bunkers in the boiler house. From these bunkers the coal was conveyed to the stoker-hoppers by automatic weighing apparatus. The ash waste from the coal being burned discharged from the boilers by automatic doors to a conveyor, which emptied into an ash-bunker, from where empty coal-trucks could be filled.
Condensing water was taken directly from the front on River Tyne, where a pump house was constructed, fitted with electric driven pumps. Circulating water was taken from a combination of wells and mains water.
The first electricity produced by the station was provided to the NER for the electrification of their North Tyneside Loop
North Tyneside Loop
The North Tyneside Loop refers to the railway lines in North Tyneside from Newcastle upon Tyne via Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Backworth, Benton and South Gosforth back to Newcastle...
, for the integration of the Tyneside Electrics
Tyneside Electrics
The Tyneside Electrics refers to the suburban railways on Tyneside that were electrified by the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway. The North Tyneside loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed one of the earliest suburban electric networks, the South Tyneside...
. From the station, feeder cables ran to various substations
Electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...
to provide power for the railway, and these substations were interconnected with older substations for the supply of power and lighting to Newcastle upon Tyne, and power to the shipyards and other riverside manufactories of Tyneside.
Once the station was operating, NESCo were required to comply with terms agreed with the electrical undertakings in the north east part of County Durham to supply electricity for ship-building and other purposes on the south side of the River Tyne. A tunnel 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter and at a depth of 120 feet (36.6 m) was driven underneath the River between the power station and Hebburn
Hebburn
Hebburn is a small town situated on the south bank of the River Tyne in North East England, sandwiched between the towns of Jarrow and Bill Quay...
.
History
Following the various additions to the original Carville power station there was no space for a further increase in capacity, and so with a rising demand for electricity during the First World War, a new Carville "B" power station was erected adjacent to the original power station, which became known as the "A" power station. Carville B Power Station was completed and opened in 1916, and was considered to be the "first major generating station in the world", as it was distinct from substations.Design and specification
The new power station employed five 11,000 kWkW turbo-alternatorsAlternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
. The station was now equipped to supply power to over 60 square miles (155.4 km²); from Shilbottle
Shilbottle
Shilbottle is a village in Northumberland, north-east England, located 3 miles south-east of Alnwick, and 5 miles from the coast and Alnmouth...
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, right down to Malton
Malton, North Yorkshire
Malton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people....
in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
. Carville B long held the record as the most economical power station in the world. The station took this record in 1914 when some of its units were completed, taking the record from Fisk Generating Station
Fisk Generating Station
The Fisk Generating Station, also known as Fisk Street Generating Station located at 1111 West Cermak Road in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, is a medium-size, legacy coal-fired electric generating station not covered by current Clean Air Act emission standards...
in Chicago, Illinois. Carville had a economy of only 10.05 lb of steam consumed per kilowatt hour generated when all five units were operating at full load. The pressure of the steam used in the station was at 275 psi, and at a temperature of 700 degrees Farenheit; this was the highest steam pressure adopted by any electric supply company in England. The station used metal clad switchgear.
When the UK's national grid distribution system was brought into use in 1932, the station in common with all other NESCo-owned power stations had to be converted from the 40 hertz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
(Hz) frequency as used by the North Eastern grid system to the 50 Hz frequency used by the new national system.