History
Construction of the first coal-fired power station at Aberthaw commenced in 1957, on the site of a golf course. It was officially opened in October 1963, and contained six 100MW Parsons turbines. The building was closed in 1995 and demolished shortly afterwards, with the exception of the substation - which remains in use today.
Aberthaw ‘B’ was opened in 1971, after only four years of construction. It was capable of producing 1,560MW from a trio of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) turbines. The boilers were specially designed to burn the semi-anthracitic low-volatile Welsh coal, together with imported bituminous or anthracite coal.
The station was saved from closure by the addition of flue gas de-sulphurisation (FGD) equipment in 2006, to comply with the EU Large Combustion Plants Directive, aimed to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions. The building was also adapted to co-fire biomass, but this stopped in 2017 when generation was limited to only peak times.
In August 2019 the owners of the site, RWE, announced that Aberthaw ‘B’ would close at the end March the following year. The final shutdown of the turbines occurred in December 2019, leaving the coal-yard still piled high with unused coal. It was the last coal-fired power station in Wales, after Uskmouth was shutdown in April 2017 following an explosion.
The Explore
Visited with @slayaaaa, @xplorer.x, @Boba Low, and @albino-jay, cheers to @Exploring with Andy for providing us with some useful info. I had already made two visits to Aberthaw previously, the first just days after closure in December 2019, with @Olkka and @slayaaaa, then again in the middle of March 2020, with Prettyvacant. I unfortunately didn't get much time to look around on either occasion, and with all the covid hurdles, I never got to have a full look inside before the lights were switched off.
The turbine hall is among the very best I've seen, it’s of a very unusual design as the boiler feed pumps and HP heaters are given a bay to themselves, meaning the turbines are much more dominant, and fairly free from clutter. The structure is also quite different to many of the other power stations I've visited, the walls of the turbine hall are predominantly built of reinforced concrete, now suffering from concrete cancer, the whole building has been built in a trench, so the turbines are at ground level, and it is possible to walk around all four sides of the turbine hall.
The site from the ash mound, most of the complex is now in darkness, though the two live substations and access roads are still well lit.
Where better to start then some shots from the gantry crane. The turbine in the foreground (unit 9) was partly disassembled shortly after closure so components could be tested to destruction at the workshops in what was once Ferrybridge 'A' power station.
This bay contains the boiler feed pumps and high pressure heaters. On the left are the coal hoppers, and out of site above are the de-aerators.
I've seen quite a few innards of turbines during demolition, but it was nice to see inside a clean one which had been carefully dismantled. This photo is taken from the high pressure end, looking towards one of the low pressure rotors.
One of the three low pressure rotors has been removed, the pipes on either side are part of the condensers.
The area below the turbines contained a lot of interesting auxiliary equipment.
The feed pump bay, showing the yellow motor driven pumps and cylindrical HP heaters.
Each unit had one steam driven feed pump.
There were also a pair of motor driven feed pumps for each unit, with their own local control panel.
Construction of the first coal-fired power station at Aberthaw commenced in 1957, on the site of a golf course. It was officially opened in October 1963, and contained six 100MW Parsons turbines. The building was closed in 1995 and demolished shortly afterwards, with the exception of the substation - which remains in use today.
Aberthaw ‘B’ was opened in 1971, after only four years of construction. It was capable of producing 1,560MW from a trio of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) turbines. The boilers were specially designed to burn the semi-anthracitic low-volatile Welsh coal, together with imported bituminous or anthracite coal.
The station was saved from closure by the addition of flue gas de-sulphurisation (FGD) equipment in 2006, to comply with the EU Large Combustion Plants Directive, aimed to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions. The building was also adapted to co-fire biomass, but this stopped in 2017 when generation was limited to only peak times.
In August 2019 the owners of the site, RWE, announced that Aberthaw ‘B’ would close at the end March the following year. The final shutdown of the turbines occurred in December 2019, leaving the coal-yard still piled high with unused coal. It was the last coal-fired power station in Wales, after Uskmouth was shutdown in April 2017 following an explosion.
The Explore
Visited with @slayaaaa, @xplorer.x, @Boba Low, and @albino-jay, cheers to @Exploring with Andy for providing us with some useful info. I had already made two visits to Aberthaw previously, the first just days after closure in December 2019, with @Olkka and @slayaaaa, then again in the middle of March 2020, with Prettyvacant. I unfortunately didn't get much time to look around on either occasion, and with all the covid hurdles, I never got to have a full look inside before the lights were switched off.
The turbine hall is among the very best I've seen, it’s of a very unusual design as the boiler feed pumps and HP heaters are given a bay to themselves, meaning the turbines are much more dominant, and fairly free from clutter. The structure is also quite different to many of the other power stations I've visited, the walls of the turbine hall are predominantly built of reinforced concrete, now suffering from concrete cancer, the whole building has been built in a trench, so the turbines are at ground level, and it is possible to walk around all four sides of the turbine hall.
The site from the ash mound, most of the complex is now in darkness, though the two live substations and access roads are still well lit.
Where better to start then some shots from the gantry crane. The turbine in the foreground (unit 9) was partly disassembled shortly after closure so components could be tested to destruction at the workshops in what was once Ferrybridge 'A' power station.
This bay contains the boiler feed pumps and high pressure heaters. On the left are the coal hoppers, and out of site above are the de-aerators.
I've seen quite a few innards of turbines during demolition, but it was nice to see inside a clean one which had been carefully dismantled. This photo is taken from the high pressure end, looking towards one of the low pressure rotors.
One of the three low pressure rotors has been removed, the pipes on either side are part of the condensers.
The area below the turbines contained a lot of interesting auxiliary equipment.
The feed pump bay, showing the yellow motor driven pumps and cylindrical HP heaters.
Each unit had one steam driven feed pump.
There were also a pair of motor driven feed pumps for each unit, with their own local control panel.
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