Eggborough Power Station:
The colossal set of structures at Eggborough Power Station were completed over 8 years between 1962-1970. 3 years before full completion, the plant began to produce power during 1967. At this point, not all units were active but come 1970, the 2 gigawatt plant was fully functioning.
Originally, the station was owned by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) before falling into the hands of National Power in 1990 when privatisation of the industry occurred. British Energy then bought Eggborough in 2000 when the peak of the power station market was happening. Come 2002, the value of the station was down by half. EDF went ahead and bought out British Energy during early 2009 and by April 2010, the site was transferred to EDF's bondholders. The station was acquired by other holdings throughout its final years but by 2015 the current owners announced the site would stop producing electricity by 2016.
A new announcement was given two months before the site was due to stop it's electrical production stating that Eggborough would operate until March 2017. Over this time, Units 1, 2 and 4 operated. Units 1 & 2 generated electricity for the National Grid providing 775MW. Unit 4 became operational again in mid September to generate 440MW following 6 months of maintenance. By February 2018, it was announced that Eggborough would close in September. Generation stopped on the 23rd March 2018 and Unit 4 was the final unit to become unavailable at 02:00AM.
The Explore:
After missing the opportunity to explore the site towards the end of last year, the time came to get ourselves down to see Eggborough. Big thanks to @host with the latest intel on this one and @UrbandonedTeam for joining us.
With it being the first power station we had considered infiltrating it was great to tick it off before it was too late. Having heard stripping was beginning in the control room there was no time to waste. In the early hours of the morning we set out and tackled the worst expanse of nettles and brambles in the complete darkness to stumble out and see the outline of the industrial behemoth.
Once inside the pitch black boiler house, we scouted from the roof to make sure we were in the clear and then aimed to complete the turbine hall and control room before workers arrived. From this point we had no trouble inside apart from on the way out where we spoke to a very defeated sounding security guard off site
Side note - It's slightly pic heavy..
On top of the boiler house roof looking up at the 660ft chimney.
A shot of Drax chugging away between the coolers.
From here we headed back down to see the turbine hall from the gantry crane.
This was the first look out over the entire hall. This is a view looking out from Unit 4 (just out of shot), down to Unit 1.
Steam would arrive at the turbine from the four 550kg/s rated boilers at 158.58 bar and 568°C and move from the high pressure turbine to the intermediate pressure turbine and finally to the low pressure turbines. Throughout this process, the steam would be recycled through the boiler house.
Floor level view of Unit 4 which was beneath the gantry crane in the previous shots
Full length-ways view of neighbouring Unit 3 including the turbine and generator.
More of Unit 3
Floor level shot of the entire hall from the end of Unit 1
Full frame shot of Unit 1
A classic view of Unit 1
Satisfied with the time spent in the turbine hall we went through doors central in the hall and walked into the control room. The pain with missing out on the other trip to this station, was missing the control room while fully intact. Sadly, workers have begun to take desks and panels apart, but not enough to ruin seeing it at all!
As you can see, one of the desks more "central" in the room had been stripped to it's metal supports and it's contents left in a pile on the floor.
Side note - These shots appear to be slightly unfocused/low quality, not sure whether it's the site I use to host them or me (most likely me..) as they're fine looking at the RAW files.
However, the rest of the panels are still surviving. Although workers have used any straight surface to put their work equipment on for the next day.
View of the panels used to control Unit 1.
View of Unit 4 control panel in context.
Close up of some of the controls used for Unit 2.
Unit 3...
Finally, I had to take this shot...
And to wrap things up, the sunrising behind the coolers!
Thanks for reading
The colossal set of structures at Eggborough Power Station were completed over 8 years between 1962-1970. 3 years before full completion, the plant began to produce power during 1967. At this point, not all units were active but come 1970, the 2 gigawatt plant was fully functioning.
Originally, the station was owned by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) before falling into the hands of National Power in 1990 when privatisation of the industry occurred. British Energy then bought Eggborough in 2000 when the peak of the power station market was happening. Come 2002, the value of the station was down by half. EDF went ahead and bought out British Energy during early 2009 and by April 2010, the site was transferred to EDF's bondholders. The station was acquired by other holdings throughout its final years but by 2015 the current owners announced the site would stop producing electricity by 2016.
A new announcement was given two months before the site was due to stop it's electrical production stating that Eggborough would operate until March 2017. Over this time, Units 1, 2 and 4 operated. Units 1 & 2 generated electricity for the National Grid providing 775MW. Unit 4 became operational again in mid September to generate 440MW following 6 months of maintenance. By February 2018, it was announced that Eggborough would close in September. Generation stopped on the 23rd March 2018 and Unit 4 was the final unit to become unavailable at 02:00AM.
The Explore:
After missing the opportunity to explore the site towards the end of last year, the time came to get ourselves down to see Eggborough. Big thanks to @host with the latest intel on this one and @UrbandonedTeam for joining us.
With it being the first power station we had considered infiltrating it was great to tick it off before it was too late. Having heard stripping was beginning in the control room there was no time to waste. In the early hours of the morning we set out and tackled the worst expanse of nettles and brambles in the complete darkness to stumble out and see the outline of the industrial behemoth.
Once inside the pitch black boiler house, we scouted from the roof to make sure we were in the clear and then aimed to complete the turbine hall and control room before workers arrived. From this point we had no trouble inside apart from on the way out where we spoke to a very defeated sounding security guard off site
Side note - It's slightly pic heavy..
On top of the boiler house roof looking up at the 660ft chimney.
A shot of Drax chugging away between the coolers.
From here we headed back down to see the turbine hall from the gantry crane.
This was the first look out over the entire hall. This is a view looking out from Unit 4 (just out of shot), down to Unit 1.
Steam would arrive at the turbine from the four 550kg/s rated boilers at 158.58 bar and 568°C and move from the high pressure turbine to the intermediate pressure turbine and finally to the low pressure turbines. Throughout this process, the steam would be recycled through the boiler house.
Floor level view of Unit 4 which was beneath the gantry crane in the previous shots
Full length-ways view of neighbouring Unit 3 including the turbine and generator.
More of Unit 3
Floor level shot of the entire hall from the end of Unit 1
Full frame shot of Unit 1
A classic view of Unit 1
Satisfied with the time spent in the turbine hall we went through doors central in the hall and walked into the control room. The pain with missing out on the other trip to this station, was missing the control room while fully intact. Sadly, workers have begun to take desks and panels apart, but not enough to ruin seeing it at all!
As you can see, one of the desks more "central" in the room had been stripped to it's metal supports and it's contents left in a pile on the floor.
Side note - These shots appear to be slightly unfocused/low quality, not sure whether it's the site I use to host them or me (most likely me..) as they're fine looking at the RAW files.
However, the rest of the panels are still surviving. Although workers have used any straight surface to put their work equipment on for the next day.
View of the panels used to control Unit 1.
View of Unit 4 control panel in context.
Close up of some of the controls used for Unit 2.
Unit 3...
Finally, I had to take this shot...
And to wrap things up, the sunrising behind the coolers!
Thanks for reading
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