Uskmouth B Power Station, Newport, Wales - August 2015 to January 2018

[Exploring with Andy]

History​

Opening in 1959 Uskmouth B is one of the UK’s oldest remaining coal-fired power station. The station was also described as the UK’s least efficient plant before it was closed pending a conversion to biomass in 2015.

The power station is a fantastic example of 1950s architecture. The main buildings are brick, the use of which was phased out shortly after construction in favour of metal-clad steel structures. The station’s single stack is one of the finest remaining fluted chimneys in the UK.

The power station originally had three English Electric generating sets, producing a total of 363 MW of electricity. The station was commissioned by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), and was handed over to National Power when the electricity industry was privatised in 1990. The station closed in 1995, and was subsequently purchased by AES in 1998. The station underwent a £120 million refurbishment which was completed by 2001. The refurbishment increased the generating power to 393 MW and new environmental equipment was installed to bring it up to date with legislative requirements.

One of the three 131 MW generators was mothballed in 2013, and a year later the entire power station was closed. The station was subsequently sold with plans to convert the boilers to fire Biomass. Uskmouth B re-opened briefly, still burning coal until an explosion caused extensive damage to the station’s switch house in April 2017. The turbines have recently been dismantled, spelling the end for this lovely station.

The Explores​

Visited this site on multiple occasions in the company of @SpiderMonkey, @Ojay and @The Amateur Wanderer.

Let's have a look at those nice English Electric turbo-generators then...
​

Overview of the Turbine Hall

Side view of Unit 14 Turbogenerator Set

View from the generator end

View from the turbine end

Heading down to ground level below the turbines we find some yummy Metropolitan Vickers feed pumps...

Boiler feed pumps

BFP Control Panel

Also down there are the condensers, hydrogen systems to cool the generator, and the CW pumps...

Into the boilers and mills next then...

The mills looked fantastic!

Bunker House Conveyors

The Explosion

On 3rd April 2017 an explosion in the station's switch room caused extensive damage. The switch room roof collapsed, and switch panels were ejected through a brick wall.

It was clear this damage has been responsible for the closure of the station since that point. Repair work is ongoing, a temporary roof has been constructed, the external wall fixed, damaged internal walls have been removed and some of the switch panels have been removed. However every single panel in that room has damage - not only are all the gauges shattered, but most of the cabinets are warped and bent, or have been ripped up out of the floor.

The room where the explosion happened

Dishevelled panels​

The panels in that room controlled the transformers for outgoing electricity, along with the station transformer which handles the incoming electricity when the plant isn't generating. Without those the place isn't going to work, so that would have put a stop to electricity generating at the station, at least until repairs are complete. The station is had been powered via a temporary (and quite noisy) truck-mounted transformer parked out the back.

Logs in the control room show the plant was running a couple of days before the explosion. Logs for day of the explosion day and the day prior to it were missing.


Control Rooms

All three control rooms were pretty much identical

And finally, lets have a look around some of the lesser seen parts...

Back-up Diesel Generators

Chemical injection plant

Boiler sampling lab

This corridor connected all the staff areas

Medical room

A nice tiled bath-house

​

While I was enjoying the biscuits the workers had kindly provided for us, Ojay and I had a glance over the paperwork scattered around the staff canteen and noticed a check sheet from the previous day. They perform checks every 6 hours, and we'd missed them by minutes. We decided to get out of there as anybody could walk in at any moment, and I'm glad we did - shortly after that, workers started arriving at the canteen to make a brew on the worlds slowest kettle before they started their days work. Seriously, we wasted about half of the visit in the canteen just waiting for the kettle to boil for a lovely brew! There were signs around the place that work was progressing, albeit slowly, and some things had certainly changed since my visit in 2015. We stayed well away from the canteen while starting to make our way out, and as we did the place started to become much busier so we decided to make a swift exit rather than getting rumbled.

Thoroughly enjoyed this trip. Uskmouth is definitely one of my favourites!
(Not only because of the biscuits.... But mainly! )​

 

[Seffy]

Really wish we had made the effort to do the control room(s) here - workers were inconveniently placed!

Good effort dude.

 

[Mr Beady]

Proper bostin this lad

 

[Camera Shy]

Nicely done.

 

[clebby]

Sexual

 

[Boba Low]

Sweet! Reminds me I have turbines to post up and all.

 

[drhowser]

That's a proper job. It looks quiet considering it was officially re opened on the 12th June.

 

[camoe]

Amazing man! serious stuff!

i assume this place is now a hive of activity and no point even trying it?

 

[bhg]

Control room pictures are so beautiful!
Top stuff!

 

[Speed]

Doesn't look like there's much Bio Fuel around either. I smell a rat!

 

[Exploring with Andy]

Doesn't look like there's much Bio Fuel around either. I smell a rat!

There were no signs that the conversion to biomass had even begun.

 

[Dave W]

Doesn't look like there's much Bio Fuel around either. I smell a rat!

Owned by the same Mr Gupta as AlphaSteel Mill down the road - Which has a long long history of ownership disputes, liquidation, unpaid wages, Re-openings etc etc stretching back to the late 80's, (although I think the indians have only owned it for a couple of years)
Have a read if your bored and see just what a clusterfuck people get into to save tax on a rolling mill: http://www.zenithchambers.co.uk/cms/document/Lictor_Anstalt.pdf

 

[The_Raw]

Very nice indeed mate, you're on a roll with these

 

[BrainL]

Superb! Amazing report and pics as always!

 

[Urbexbandoned]

This is awesome! Love he turbine hall and the controls