Bradford power station

Bradford Power Station (also known as Valley Road Power Station)[1] was an electricity generating site located on Valley Road in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The primary source of fuel was coal which was railed into the sidings adjacent to the Bradford Forster Square to Shipley railway line. The plant operated for 79 years and had cooling towers constructed from wood and was noted for its 300-foot (91 m) chimney that was supposed to vent smoke away from the valley floor in Bradford Dale that the power station was located on.

Bradford Power Station
Location within Bradford
Official nameValley Road Power Station
CountryEngland
LocationBradford, West Yorkshire
Coordinates53.802947°N 1.754141°W / 53.802947; -1.754141
StatusDecommissioned and demolished
Construction began1896
Commission date1897
Decommission date1976
Operator(s)Bradford Corporation 1897–1948
British Electricity Authority (1948–55), Central Electricity Authority (1955–57), CEGB 1958–1976
Thermal power station
Primary fuelCoal
Power generation
Nameplate capacity70 MW
Annual net output79.655 GWh (1971)

The commissioning of a power station in Bradford as operated by the Bradford Corporation, made it the first municipal supplier of electricity in the United Kingdom.

History

In 1882, the United Kingdom Government passed the Electric Lighting Act.[2] This allowed individuals, private companies and corporations the right to build and operate their own power generating sites.[3] The Bradford Corporation, who also supplied water and other services to the City of Bradford, applied for a license and were granted one in 1883, though they did not commission anything until 1887 when a small generating site was built on Bolton Road.[4] This made the Bradford Corporation the first municipal provider of electricity in the United Kingdom.[5] In 1889, the power was used in the private homes of 43 consumers. In 1897 the plant had a generating capacity of 2019 kW and the maximum load was 1123 kW. A total of 977.12 MWh of electricity was sold which powered 68,843 lamps, this provided an income to the corporation of £18,552-12-7d.[6]

By 1960, the power station on Valley Road was supplying electricity to over 134,000 homes.[7]

The first conversion of an urban tramway system from horse to electric power was in Bradford in 1892 supplied from Bolton Road.[8]

By the middle of the 1890s, it was clear that the original site in Bolton Road was not capable of generating the electrical needs of the growing city and so another site was commissioned between Canal Road and Valley Road in the north of the city[9] which adjoined the Leeds and Bradford Railway lines approaching Forster Square station.[10] The foundation stone was laid in June 1896[11] with Bradford Power Station opening a year later in 1897.[12] The power station's location in the north end of the city, low in the valley of Bradforddale, meant that a 300-foot (91 m) chimney was constructed to vent the smoke away from the valley floor.[13] The valley floor was heavily polluted by industries burning low carbon coal, so an order was instituted before the power station was built stipulating that chimneys were to be at least 90 feet (27 m) in height.[14]

In 1911 the first electric trolley buses were introduced Bradford and Leeds.[15]

By 1923 the generating plant comprised both AC and DC machinery. The AC plant included three 3,000 kW, one 5,000 kW and two 12,000 kW turbo-alternators (a total of 38,000 kW) which supplied 3-phase, 50 Hz AC at 400 and 230 Volts.[16] The 230 and 460 volt DC supply was generated by a 1,000 kW reciprocating machine. In 1923 the maximum load on the system was 32,640 kW from 75,175 connections from consumers. The total number of units sold that year was 65,456,551 kWh raising £440,091. The surplus of revenue over expenses was £231,871.[16]

In 1931 a topping turbine was installed at Valley Road.[15] This was an English Electric Company 2.5 MW, 6,000 rpm machine. It used steam at 1,100 psi and 800°F (75.9 bar and 427°C), which exhausted to existing steam mains at 205 psi (14.1 bar).[15]

A new turbo power generator was installed on the site in 1930. It was named Princess Mary and was unveiled by its namesake Princess Mary. This made Bradford Power station the most powerful generating concern under local authority control at that time.[17] The power station was extended in 1939 and again in 1947, so that by its closure in 1976, it was capable of generating 70 megaWatts of power.[18] It was noted for its 12 Davenport Towers (cooling towers constructed of wood, which at the Bradford site were over 140-foot (43 m) high, some of the highest noted in England).[10][note 1][19][20] The timber towers had a capacity of 5.335 million gallons per hour (6.74 m3/s).[21] By the time of its closure, the power station also had one conventional concrete cooling tower at the northern end of the site besides retaining many of the original wooden towers.[22] The concrete tower had a capacity of 1.25 million gallons per hour (1.58 m3/s).[21]

The power station consumed 200 tonnes (220 tons) of coal per day which also resulted in over 3,000,000 imperial gallons (14,000,000 l; 3,600,000 US gal) of water being used through the system.[13] Coal was railed into the site via a conveyor system located on the western side of the station via the Midland Railway sidings in Valley Road.[23]

Upon nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948 the ownership of Bradford power station was vested in the British Electricity Authority, and subsequently the Central Electricity Authority and the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB).[15] The electricity distribution and sales functions were vested in the Yorkshire Electricity Board.

By the late 1950s the station comprised six Babcock and Wilcox boilers with a total evaporative capacity of 1,080,000 pounds per hour (136.1 kg/s) operating at 650 psi at 850°F (44.8 bar at 454°C).[21] There were five turbo-alternators: one 20 MW and one 30 MW English Electric (6.6 kV); one 30 MW English Electric (33 kV); one 22.5 MW (6.6 kV) and one 22.5 MW (33 kV) Parsons sets.

The output of the station in the late 1950s and early 1960s was:[21][24]

Bradford power station output GWh
High pressure station Low pressure station
1953/4 277.75 33.98
1954/5 319.09 41.32
1955/6 276.01 28.68
1956/7 214.52 11.57
1957/8 142.13 15.85
Combined output
1960/1 244.85
1961/2 261.09
1962/3 263.38

In 1971 the station had an installed capacity of 75 MW including one 30 MW generator and several smaller machines.[25] The boilers had an output capacity of 1,080,000 pounds per hour (136 kg/s) of steam at 625 psi (43.1 bar) and 441°C. In 1971 the station delivered 79.66 GWh of electricity.[25]

Retail units near the site of the former power station

The power station was given a 12 month notice of closure in October 1975, with full closure being effected in October 1976.[26] The site was demolished in 1978 and is now occupied by commercial and industrial units.[27]

Notes
  1. Davenport Towers were so called as they were constructed by Davenport Engineering who were located in Harris Street, Bradford.
gollark: Also, it's not actually entirely self-sufficient (oops...), I couldn't figure out a compact power source.
gollark: It's also in a compact machine, so you can pick it up and carry it around!
gollark: The WIP Executive Office thing. Fully self-sufficient and with these convenient holograms of the outside world.
gollark: It's now actually turned on.
gollark: Electromagnets are powering up.

References
  1. "ELECTRICITY SUPPLY, BRADFORD. (Hansard, 27 February 1936)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  2. "Electric Lighting Act 1882". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  3. Parsons 1940, p. 122.
  4. Parsons 1940, p. 122–123.
  5. Butler, Scott (September 2001). "UK Electricity Networks" (PDF). parliament.uk. Imperial College of Science. p. 10. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  6. Garcke, Emile (1898). Manual of Electricity Undertakings vol. 3. London: P. S. King & Son.
  7. Firth, Gary (1997). A history of Bradford. Chichester: Phillimore. p. 120. ISBN 1-86077-057-6.
  8. Hannah, Leslie (1979). Electricity before Nationalisation. London: Macmillan. p. 15. ISBN 0333220862.
  9. Parsons 1940, p. 123.
  10. "GANSG - Electricity Generating Stations". www.igg.org.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  11. Parsons 1940, p. 123–124.
  12. "Bradford Power Station". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  13. Mead, Helen (19 August 2015). "7 PICTURES: Uncovering the hidden history of Bradford's ever-changing cityscape". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  14. Richardson, Clement (1986). "Clearing the Air". The Bradford Antiquary. Bradford: Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society. 2 (Third Series): 28–34. ISSN 0955-2553.
  15. Electricity Council (1987). Electricity Supply in the United Kingdom: a Chronology. London: Electricity Council. pp. 39, 49, 60. ISBN 085188105X.
  16. Electricity Commission (1925). Electricity Supply - 1920-1923. London: HMSO. pp. 14–18, 260–65.
  17. Davis, Mark (2011). Bradford Through Time. Stroud: Amberley. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-4456-0330-8.
  18. "Coal-fired Power Stations (Hansard, 16 January 1984)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  19. "Davenport Engineering Co". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  20. "GANSG - Industrial ancillary structures". www.igg.org.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  21. Garrett, Frederick C. (ed) (1959). Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply vol. 56. London: Electrical Press. pp. A-37, A-114.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  22. Hillmer, John; Shannon, Paul (2005). Yorkshire : the West Riding. Kettering: Past & Present Pub. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-85895-240-6.
  23. "Bridge – Bradford and District Local Studies". bradfordlocalstudies.wordpress.com. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  24. CEGB Annual report and Accounts, 1961, 1962 & 1963
  25. CEGB (1972). CEGB Statistical Yearbook 1972. London: CEGB. p. 15.
  26. "Power Stations (Hansard, 5 December 1975)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  27. "Recording our shared Industrial Heritage". www.industrialhistoryonline.co.uk. Retrieved 23 December 2018.

Sources
  • Parsons, R H (1940). The early days of the power station industry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1048650350.
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