Report - Uskmouth Power Station, Newport - February 2018

[Polo]

MODS: Obviously move this over whenever you can, cheers.

Uskmouth B Power Station, Newport

Let's kick off with some of the history that I'm sure the majority you have already seen a fair few times:
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The Uskmouth Power Stations refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations at the mouth of the River Usk in Newport, south Wales.

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Uskmouth A power station was constructed during the 1950s but was eventually closed on 26th October 1981 with a generating capacity of 228 megawatts. The station was demolished in 2002 - some footage of the process between 1999 and 2001 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reWtbqggWjI.

Uskmouth B power station was built in 1959, once standing with a generating capacity of 363 megawatts - enough to power the surrounding area of Newport (360,000 homes). The electricity is provided by three generating sets. Initially operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board, the station's operations were handed over to National Power with privatisation in 1990.

The station was then closed in 1995 however, in 1998, it was purchased by AES. The station was given a £120 million refurbishment to bring it up to date with legislative requirements. New environmental equipment was installed and it was given a refurbishment which is thought to have extended the station's life by 25 years. Uskmouth B's generating capacity was also increased to 393 MW. In 2001 the work was completed and the station was reopened. However, only a year later the plant passed into receivership, but had a brief period of operating in the winter between 2003 and 2004. In June 2004 the station was put back into full operation when it was bought by Welsh Power - who were then known as Carron Energy. Welsh Power sold it to SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy plc) in 2009 for £27m.

In April 2013 one of the three remaining blocks was closed, resulting in a reduced generation capacity of 260 megawatts.​

Future plans seem to involve converting the site from being coal-fired to using more renewable resources, costing around £200M. These plans follow an explosion that took place last April in one of the station's switch rooms, causing parts of the wall and roof to collapse.

I have no idea when this place was last used but I've been aware of Uskmouth since @clebby mentioned it I think in 2015 - obviously after a few pestering messages asking for locations. Despite that, it was only recently that a few of us decided to check it out and we were lucky enough to get onsite.

Anyway, onto my photos. I wish I got more but ah well, here they are:

No.15 Unit Control Room - probably my favourite room across the site. We managed to spend a fair bit of time in this one but we eventually moved on thinking security would be on their way round soon. It was decided we should find somewhere a bit quieter to avoid bumping into anyone but I wasn't convinced anyone had checked anything, it turns out.

I don't think the coat quite suited me to be honest, nor did it fit. It was nice to get in here though and have the chance to wash my hands before getting them on some custard creams. It was getting on a bit at this point so we didn't hang around for too much longer. I got a few more rushed photos and headed back for the exit. I always find that leaving a site seems to go by much quicker than when you're trying to get inside, or at least it feels that way - not this time.

Thanks for looking!​

 

[MrDevla]

Great set of photos you’ve taken. Interesting place :

 

[Seffy]

Cracking job indeed! Still never made it to those control rooms

Last time I was here I got very wet at the end.. I think you can imagine what went wrong :

 

[Will Knot]

Awesome work that... nice pics

 

[Dempsey]

Bloody lovleh.