D
Dragon_Urbex
Guest
Guest
So, this is a location I've wanted to do for quite some time now, but never got round to actually managing to do it. That was until November 2021.
History:
Kingsnorth Power Station was a 2,000 megawatt dual-fired coal and oil power station, situated north of Rochester on the Hoo Peninsula. The power station was begun in 1963 on the site of the RNAS Kingsnorth, a former disused World War One Royal Naval airship base, and was commissioned in 1970. The power station had four boilers manufactured by International Combustion LTD. These were equipped with systems designed to fire both heavy fuel oil and also coal - the latter required five International Combustion Lopulco Pressure Mills to pulverise the coal into a fine powder to be blown into the boiler to be combusted. There were four turbines that powered four 500MW generators, along with four auxiliary 22.5MW gas turbines in a separate building. To my knowledge, these were all provided by English Electric Co.
Kingsnorth was owned and operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board all the way until the electricity generation industry was privatised in 1990. Ownership then passed to PowerGen who owned it from 1990-2002 and then finally it was bought by E.ON UK, a subsidiary of German company E.ON. The power station, like many others including Grain, Tilbury, Fawley, Didcot, Cockenzie, Ironbridge etc, was forced to close by the EU "Large Combustion Plant Directive" as it "opted out" of having flue gas desulphurisation systems fitted. This directive only affected the UK, and not the whole of the EU which is ridiculous. Kingsnorth ceased generating electricity in December 2012. Demolition began in 2014-2015 and ended with the explosive demolition of the power station's single 198 meter tall chimney in March 2018. Since then, the site has been derelict wasteland. The coal handling facility survives, albeit awaiting demolition.
The Explore:
After a day of exploring other things and camping, myself, four others and @Landie_Man rocked up nearby and began the walk. It wasn't an easy site to access, but we all got in unscathed, eyes peeled for any sign of potential security - the National Grid substation is still live so that was why we were keeping an eye and ear out. Not too long after, we found our way onto the jetty and began walking out along it. I'll let the photographs tell the rest of this...:
1) The tallest crane of them all. I estimate about 250ft ish tall.
2) The second crane, nowhere near as tall as the first.
3) A large cable reel on the smaller crane.
4) A coal shute that would have dropped coal onto the conveyor belts and taken it either to the power station mills or the stock yard.
5) The beltless conveyor lines.
6) The inside of the small control rooms.
7) I can only assume this controlled the various systems on the jetty.
8) The relatively small wheels and tracks for such a behemoth of a crane.
9) The big crane's bucket grabber.
10) Whilst out on the counterweight boom I had to grab this shot.
11) The sun beginning to set over the Medway Estuary.
12) Looking towards the power station site, which is empty apart from the National Grid site, which is still live.
13) Inside the cab of the big crane.
14) Looking out over the Medway.
15) The folded up boom.
16) Another arty farty shot, had to get it!
17) Closer up shot of the boom.
18) Sunset over the Medway Estuary again.
Thanks for readin'!
History:
Kingsnorth Power Station was a 2,000 megawatt dual-fired coal and oil power station, situated north of Rochester on the Hoo Peninsula. The power station was begun in 1963 on the site of the RNAS Kingsnorth, a former disused World War One Royal Naval airship base, and was commissioned in 1970. The power station had four boilers manufactured by International Combustion LTD. These were equipped with systems designed to fire both heavy fuel oil and also coal - the latter required five International Combustion Lopulco Pressure Mills to pulverise the coal into a fine powder to be blown into the boiler to be combusted. There were four turbines that powered four 500MW generators, along with four auxiliary 22.5MW gas turbines in a separate building. To my knowledge, these were all provided by English Electric Co.
Kingsnorth was owned and operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board all the way until the electricity generation industry was privatised in 1990. Ownership then passed to PowerGen who owned it from 1990-2002 and then finally it was bought by E.ON UK, a subsidiary of German company E.ON. The power station, like many others including Grain, Tilbury, Fawley, Didcot, Cockenzie, Ironbridge etc, was forced to close by the EU "Large Combustion Plant Directive" as it "opted out" of having flue gas desulphurisation systems fitted. This directive only affected the UK, and not the whole of the EU which is ridiculous. Kingsnorth ceased generating electricity in December 2012. Demolition began in 2014-2015 and ended with the explosive demolition of the power station's single 198 meter tall chimney in March 2018. Since then, the site has been derelict wasteland. The coal handling facility survives, albeit awaiting demolition.
The Explore:
After a day of exploring other things and camping, myself, four others and @Landie_Man rocked up nearby and began the walk. It wasn't an easy site to access, but we all got in unscathed, eyes peeled for any sign of potential security - the National Grid substation is still live so that was why we were keeping an eye and ear out. Not too long after, we found our way onto the jetty and began walking out along it. I'll let the photographs tell the rest of this...:
1) The tallest crane of them all. I estimate about 250ft ish tall.
2) The second crane, nowhere near as tall as the first.
3) A large cable reel on the smaller crane.
4) A coal shute that would have dropped coal onto the conveyor belts and taken it either to the power station mills or the stock yard.
5) The beltless conveyor lines.
6) The inside of the small control rooms.
7) I can only assume this controlled the various systems on the jetty.
8) The relatively small wheels and tracks for such a behemoth of a crane.
9) The big crane's bucket grabber.
10) Whilst out on the counterweight boom I had to grab this shot.
11) The sun beginning to set over the Medway Estuary.
12) Looking towards the power station site, which is empty apart from the National Grid site, which is still live.
13) Inside the cab of the big crane.
14) Looking out over the Medway.
15) The folded up boom.
16) Another arty farty shot, had to get it!
17) Closer up shot of the boom.
18) Sunset over the Medway Estuary again.
Thanks for readin'!
