Littlebrook Power Station Chimney
Coal and oil fired power station chimneys, or high flue-gas stacks, sit as some of the highest structures in the UK. The tallest being Drax at around 800ft, the second now being Littlebrook after the fall of Inverkip and Grain. I've always wanted to climb one and after hearing of the success a few others including Conrad had elsewhere, I set my eyes on doing this one. Matt and Kev came down a while back and it made for the perfect opportunity. A lot of luck and 85 sets of stairs, we were up top.
LittleBrook Powerstation
Littlebrook powerstation sits on the Thames near the Dartford crossing on the Kent side of the river, it used oil to burn and heat steam that pushed 3 660MW (later increased to 685MW) turbines to generate a steady 1,370 MW (1,475 MW including the open-cycle gas turbines). It was owned an ran by the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) and later the NationalGrid.
It was built in 1976 and the first unit entered work in 1981 after 5 years of construction.
This station featured a unique Black-Start system, as described on Wiki: Littlebrook D was one of a number of stations throughout the UK with black-start capabilities, meaning that it was able to start generating without an external power supply - the station would be one of the first to start generating should the UK experience a partial or complete blackout. Littlebrook D played a vital role in restoring power supplies to the South East of England in the days following the storm force winds of October 1987. The black-start capability was facilitated by the presence of three open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), each capable of generating 35 MW, which was sufficient to operate the station auxiliary equipment and allow a main unit to be started. Each OCGT set incorporated two Roll Royce jet engines which are industrial derivatives of those that were used on the Concorde aircraft. As well as providing black-start supplies to the station, the fact that they could synchronise and ramp up to full load in under five minutes means they were used to generate at the request of National Grid Company (who operated the UK electricity grid system) to deal with short-term peaks in demand. Such peaks typically arise during the winter months, where evening demand is higher due to lighting and heating requirements. A further facility provided to the National Grid Company by the OCGTs was one of system protection. They would start automatically should the system frequency (50.0 Hz in the UK) fall to 49.6 Hz, which would indicate that the supply from generation was not sufficient to meet the demand. The National Grid are obliged to ensure that there is enough operating reserve available at all times and as such, low frequency events are rare and will only arise where a substantial loss of generation has occurred.
Littlebrook in the snow
The chimney was 705ft, or 215m, tall and made up of 3 individual flue-gas stacks and a steel staircase surrounded by a concrete structure. Later in the stations life an investment was given to include the addition of an electrostatic precipitator to remove any particulates present in the flue gas before it left the chimney.
The Chimney
We had had a period of misty mornings and weather down South and I was thinking of getting up high somewhere to get a few more pictures above the clouds like those from the mast in Suffolk. Thankfuly I managed to but without planning it. I was looking forward to looking down on the QE bridge but this weather always makes views 10x better. Enjoy!
Cheers for looking! Not as good as the mast pictures but I've lost my editing software. Please be careful if you give it a climb, it's still used by the BASE community so would be good to keep pictures away from the public eye until it's all gone.
Coal and oil fired power station chimneys, or high flue-gas stacks, sit as some of the highest structures in the UK. The tallest being Drax at around 800ft, the second now being Littlebrook after the fall of Inverkip and Grain. I've always wanted to climb one and after hearing of the success a few others including Conrad had elsewhere, I set my eyes on doing this one. Matt and Kev came down a while back and it made for the perfect opportunity. A lot of luck and 85 sets of stairs, we were up top.
LittleBrook Powerstation
Littlebrook powerstation sits on the Thames near the Dartford crossing on the Kent side of the river, it used oil to burn and heat steam that pushed 3 660MW (later increased to 685MW) turbines to generate a steady 1,370 MW (1,475 MW including the open-cycle gas turbines). It was owned an ran by the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) and later the NationalGrid.
It was built in 1976 and the first unit entered work in 1981 after 5 years of construction.
This station featured a unique Black-Start system, as described on Wiki: Littlebrook D was one of a number of stations throughout the UK with black-start capabilities, meaning that it was able to start generating without an external power supply - the station would be one of the first to start generating should the UK experience a partial or complete blackout. Littlebrook D played a vital role in restoring power supplies to the South East of England in the days following the storm force winds of October 1987. The black-start capability was facilitated by the presence of three open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), each capable of generating 35 MW, which was sufficient to operate the station auxiliary equipment and allow a main unit to be started. Each OCGT set incorporated two Roll Royce jet engines which are industrial derivatives of those that were used on the Concorde aircraft. As well as providing black-start supplies to the station, the fact that they could synchronise and ramp up to full load in under five minutes means they were used to generate at the request of National Grid Company (who operated the UK electricity grid system) to deal with short-term peaks in demand. Such peaks typically arise during the winter months, where evening demand is higher due to lighting and heating requirements. A further facility provided to the National Grid Company by the OCGTs was one of system protection. They would start automatically should the system frequency (50.0 Hz in the UK) fall to 49.6 Hz, which would indicate that the supply from generation was not sufficient to meet the demand. The National Grid are obliged to ensure that there is enough operating reserve available at all times and as such, low frequency events are rare and will only arise where a substantial loss of generation has occurred.
Littlebrook in the snow
The chimney was 705ft, or 215m, tall and made up of 3 individual flue-gas stacks and a steel staircase surrounded by a concrete structure. Later in the stations life an investment was given to include the addition of an electrostatic precipitator to remove any particulates present in the flue gas before it left the chimney.
The Chimney
We had had a period of misty mornings and weather down South and I was thinking of getting up high somewhere to get a few more pictures above the clouds like those from the mast in Suffolk. Thankfuly I managed to but without planning it. I was looking forward to looking down on the QE bridge but this weather always makes views 10x better. Enjoy!
Cheers for looking! Not as good as the mast pictures but I've lost my editing software. Please be careful if you give it a climb, it's still used by the BASE community so would be good to keep pictures away from the public eye until it's all gone.
explosion shook my windows and I could see the smoke and orange glows from window. A bit disappointed with the loudness if honest. More to come apparently
