The Ferrybridge power stations were three coal-fired power stations on the River Aire near Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire, England, in operation from 1927 to 2016 on a site next to the junction of the M62 and A1(M) motorways.
The first station, Ferrybridge A, was constructed in the mid-1920s and closed in 1976. Ferrybridge B was brought into operation in the 1950s and closed in the early 1990s.
In 1966, Ferrybridge C power station was opened with a generating capacity of 2000 MW. It had been constructed and was then operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). After privatisation in 1989 ownership was passed to Powergen, then to Edison Mission Energy (1999), then to AEP Energy Services (American Electric Power) (2001) and finally to SSE plc (2004). In 2009 two of the four units were fitted with flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) plant. In 2013 SSE indicated that the power station would not comply with the Industrial Emissions Directive, requiring the plant's closure by 2023 or earlier. It was later announced that the plant would be fully closed by March 2016.
Ferrybridge Multifuel 1 is a 68 MW multi-fuel energy-from-waste plant at the site which became operational in 2015. Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 is a 70 MW multi-fuel plant built alongside the MF1 plant, which became operational in 2019.
On 28 July 2019, one of Ferrybridge's cooling towers was demolished, followed by a further four on 13 October. The main boiler house, bunker bay and two chimney stacks were demolished on 22 August 2021. The final three cooling towers were demolished on 17 March 2022.
Ferrybridge A (1917–1976)
Land at Ferrybridge was purchased by the Yorkshire Electric Power Company in 1917. Plans for a power station were prepared and submitted to the Board of Trade in March 1918. Because of a system change the following year with the Electricity (Supply) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 100), the plans were put on hold. The plans were resubmitted to the Electricity Commissioners in January 1920. The plans were finally granted permission in November 1921, but delayed by a supply area reshuffle. A site was chosen with good access to coal, water, and good transport links including water transport.The Engineer, 28 October 1927, p.489, col.2
Construction of Ferrybridge A power station began in 1926 and the station began operating in 1927. The initial station covered of the site. The main buildings contained the boilers, turbines, and offices and workshops, and a smaller building housed the electrical switchgear.The Engineer, 28 October 1927, p.489, col.3 & Fig.3 Transport facilities included sidings connected to the Dearne Valley line with equipment for handling wagons up to 20 t, and a river wharf for transport by barge. Wagon unloading was by a side tipper, into an automated weigher and then conveyors, and barge unloading was by a crane into the weighing machine.The Engineer, 4 November 1927, p.503, col.3, Fig. 6 The cooling water intakes were upstream of the wharves, initially with two filtered intakes with a minimum capacity (low water) of of water per hour.The Engineer, 28 October 1927, p.489, col.3; p.490, col.1
The power generating equipment included eight per hour water boiling capacity water tube boilers arranged in pairs, sharing air draught and chimneys ( height). The boilers were designed to produce superheated steam at at The Engineer, 4 November 1927, p.504, cols. 2,3 The turbine/generator section had two 3,000 rpm three stage reaction turbines driving alternators rated at 19 MW continuous.The Engineer, 4 November 1927, p.504, col.3 The alternators produced 50 Hz 3 phase AC at 11 kV, which was stepped up to 33 kV by two sets of three single phase transformers rated at 25 MW per set.The Engineer, 11 November 1927, p.532, col. 1The Engineer, 4 November 1927, p.504, Fig. 8
The station passed into the ownership of the British Electricity Authority on the nationalisation of the UK's power industry, with the Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54). This company in turn became the Central Electricity Authority in 1954. The annual electricity output of the A station was:GEGB Annual report and accounts, various yearsElectricity Commission, Generation of Electricity in Great Britain year ended 31st December 1946. London: HMSO, 1947. +Electricity output of Ferrybridge AYear19461960–11961–21962–31966-7Electricity supplied, GWh468.151541.1545.7549.0485.2 The station closed on 25 October 1976, at which point it had a generating capacity of 125 MW.
Ferrybridge A's boiler room and turbine hall still stand today. The buildings are now used as offices and workshops, by the RWE npower Technical Support Group, who are responsible for the maintenance and repairs of power station plant from around the country.
Ferrybridge B (1957–1992) Ferrybridge B Power Station with a capacity of 300MW was commissioned between 1957 and 1959. It was constructed on a site that was purchased by the Yorkshire Electric Power Company in 1918. At that time the land was flooded and was used for growing willows when basket making was a thriving local industry. Before construction of the station the level of the site was raised above flood level by ash from Ferrybridge “A” power station. The station contained three 100 MW Parsons turbo-alternators and two Stirling and one Babcock & Wilcox boilers, with steam conditions at the turbine stop valve of 1500 psi. and 975 deg F with reheat to 955 deg F at 432 psi. Coal was delivered by rail or barge from the River Aire. Cooling water for the condensers is obtained from the River Aire but this couldn't provide sufficient levels three cooling towers were also constructed.
The station originally had a total generating capacity of 300 MW, but by the 1990s this was recorded as 285 MW. Ferrybridge B was one of the CEGB's twenty steam power stations with the highest thermal efficiency; in 1963–4 the thermal efficiency was 32.34 per cent, 31.98 per cent in 1964–5, and 31.96 per cent in 1965–6. The annual electricity output of Ferrybridge B was: +Electricity output of Ferrybridge BYear1959–601960–11961–21962–31963–41964–51965–61966-71971–21978–91981–2Electricity supplied, GWh1,4842,0291,9541,9212,0652,0141,9122,0091,7191,2581,651 After the UK's electric supply industry was privatised in 1990, the station was operated by PowerGen. The station closed in 1992 and has since been completely demolished.
In 2006 LaFarge began construction of a plasterboard factory adjacent to the Ferrybridge C power station on the site of the former Ferrybridge B station to use the Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) produced by FGD.
Ferrybridge C (1966–2016) CEGB period (1966–1989) The power station was originally built for and operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board.
Construction Work began on Ferrybridge C in 1961. The architects were the Building Design Partnership. There were two chimneys and the eight cooling towers were arranged in a lozenge pattern on side of the building.
Cooling towers collapse
On 1 November 1965, three of the cooling towers collapsed due to vibrations from Kármán turbulence in winds. The remaining five were severely damaged.
A committee of enquiry concluded that although the structures had been built to withstand higher wind speeds, the design only considered average wind speeds over one minute for a solitary tower and neglected shorter gusts. Furthermore, the grouped shape of the cooling towers meant that westerly winds were funnelled into the towers themselves, creating a vortex. It noted that they had been built to a lower standard than previous towers on the site and only to standard with no safety margin. The committee carried out extensive testing with models. . The destroyed towers were rebuilt to a higher specification and the five surviving towers were strengthened to tolerate adverse weather conditions.
Commissioning
Commissioning of Ferrybridge C began in 1966: one unit was brought on line, feeding electricity into the National Grid, on 27 February 1966. Units 2, 3 and 4 were all commissioned by the end of 1967. Following the cooling tower accident, it was planned that the station would not be opened for some time after the scheduled date. However it was possible to connect one of the remaining towers to the now complete Unit 1. The reconstruction of the destroyed towers began in April 1966 and had been completed by 1968.
Specification Ferrybridge C Power Station had four 500 MW generating sets known as units 1–4. There were four boilers rated at 435 kg/s, steam conditions were 158.58 bar at 566/566 °C reheat. In addition to the main generating sets the plant originally had four gas turbines with a combined capacity of 68 MW. Two were retired in the late 1990s reducing capacity to 34 MW. These units are used to start the plant in the absence of an external power supply.
The generating capacity, electricity output and thermal efficiency were as shown in the table. +Ferrybridge CYearNet capability, MWElectricity supplied, GWhLoad as per cent of capability, %Thermal efficiency, %1966/735720127.028.071971/220007,34044.033.941978/9193211,72169.334.851981/2193210,22960.436.51 Coal supply was by rail transport (initially 4m. tons a year in 1,000-ton Merry-go-round trains at the rate of 17 a day) and road transport and barge (initially 1m. tons on the Aire and Calder Navigation). Barge transport ended in the late 1990s. Another source mentions that the last time the barge unloader operated was on 17 December 2002 Rail transport comprised a branch off the adjacent Swinton and Milford Junction line. Facilities include a west-facing junction on the Swinton line, two coal discharge lines (No. 1 track and No. 2 track), gross- and tare-weight weighbridges, a hopper house, together with an oil siding. The automatic unloading equipment for the coal trains was built by Rhymney Engineering, a Powell Duffryn company. It used ultrasonic detection, capable of dealing with up to 99 wagons in a train (though initially trains had 35 hopper wagons), to control the door-opening gear to empty 5 wagons at a time into the bunkers.Modern Railways January 1967 p. 46
The plant's two chimneys were high. The eight cooling towers were built to a height of , none of which remain at the site after the final demolition of the cooling towers on 17 March 2022.
Post-privatisation (1989–2016) Ownership passed to Powergen (1989) after the privatisation of the Central Electricity Generating Board. In 1998, during the 1990s "dash for gas", Powergen closed Unit 4. In 1999 the power station, along with Fiddlers Ferry in Cheshire, was sold to Edison Mission Energy. Both stations were then sold on to AEP Energy Services Ltd (American Electric Power) in 2001, before both were sold again to SSE plc in July 2004 for £136 million.
In 2005, SSE took the decision to fit Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) to the plant, installing equipment to scrub half of Ferrybridge's output; the decision was required to partially meet the specifications of the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD). In 2008 the boilers were fitted with Boosted Over Fire Air in order to reduce the NOx emissions. In 2009 FGD was commissioned on Units 3 and 4. The installation of FGD allowed SSE to sign a five-year agreement with UK Coal for 3.5 million tonnes of higher-sulphur coal.
In December 2013, SSE announced that Ferrybridge would opt out from (not comply with) the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU); this would require the plant to close by the end of 2023, or on completing 17,500 hours of operation after 1 January 2016. The units without FGD (1 and 2) were closed on 28 March 2014, having completed the 20,000 operating hours permitted under the LCPD.
Ferrybridge C fire, 31 July 2014