The Uskmouth power stations (also known as the Fifoots Point power stations) refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations at the mouth of the River Usk in the south-east of Newport, Wales. The first of the two station, Uskmouth A power station, was built in the 1940s and demolished in 2002.
The second station, Uskmouth B power station, was built in the 1950s and as of 2023 has been decommissioned and mothballed.[1][2]
Uskmouth A
Uskmouth A power station was authorised in 1947, and building started in April 1948. The first generating set was commissioned in December 1952, followed by other sets in September 1953, March 1954, September 1954, June 1956 and finally December 1956 for a set scrapped in January 1956.[3][4] It comprised four Fraser and Chalmers / GEC 60 MW hydrogen cooled 11.8 kV turbo-alternators, these were supplied with steam at 62.1 bar and 482 °C.[5] The 12 Babcock and Wilcox pulverised fuel boilers were capable of delivering 320.0 kg/s of steam.
The generating capacity and output of the station was as follows.[6][4][5][7]
Uskmouth A generating capacity and output
Year
Capacity MW
Electricity supplied GWh
1954
168
618.239
1955
228
1276.305
1956
228
1409.361
1957
342
1575.815
1958
342
2149.267
1961
360
1489.1
1962
360
1241.6
1963
360
1257.1
1967
360
1138.711
1971
360
887.514
1979
240
148.250
1981
228
19.802
On the 18th of January 1956, the No. 5 60-MW generator, a conventional steam turbine with a low pressure rotor driving a hydrogen cooled generator, suffered a catastrophic overspeed event. In the resulting explosion, two workers were killed and nine injured, and the turbine and generator were completely destroyed. Wreckage from the blast was propelled through the walls of the building and thrown as far as several hundred yards. Remarkably, the remaining four generator sets, which operating under full loads, experienced no interruption in operation.[8]
The A station was closed on 26 October 1981 with a generating capacity of 228 megawatts.[9] The station was demolished in 2002[10]
Uskmouth B
Uskmouth B power station (or Uskmouth Power as it is now known) was authorised in May 1957 and built in 1959.[11] It has a generating capacity of 363 MW, which is enough to power 360,000 homes, or the surrounding area of Newport.[12][13] The electricity is provided by three 110 MW generating sets.[12] Uskmouth B was one of the CEGB’s twenty steam power stations with the highest thermal efficiency at the time; in 1963–4 the thermal efficiency was 32.15 per cent, 32.72 per cent in 1964–5, and 32.89 per cent in 1965–6.[14] The pulverised fuel boilers were capable of delivering 324.0 kg/s of steam at 103.4 bar and 538 °C. It is situated in an essential position for the National Grid, as there are very few power stations situated in the south of Wales.[13] The annual electricity output of Uskmouth B was:[14][7]
Electricity output of Uskmouth B
Year
1960–1
1961–2
1962–3
1963–4
1964–5
1965–6
1966–7
1971–2
1978–9
1980–1
1981–2
Electricity supplied, GWh
9.766
1006.7
1527.2
1,665
1,890
1,649
1,666
1,715
960.2
979.6
1,081
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.[15] But in 1998, it was purchased by AES.[16] 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.[13] The station's generating capacity was also increased to 393 MW.[16] 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.[3] Welsh Power sold it to SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy plc) in 2009 for £27m.[17] In April 2013 one of the three remaining blocks was closed, so the power station has now a remaining generation capacity of 260 MW.[18]
The station was earmarked for closure in 2014 and subsequently mothballed.[23] However, in 2015, plans were announced to instead convert the station to run fully on pellets of biomass and waste plastic, as part of a scheme to regenerate the area and create hundreds of jobs.[24] These plans then took priority and as a result, Uskmouth saw very infrequent use as a coal plant; with April 2017 being the last occasion.[25][26]
In 2017, Simec Atlantis Energy joined a partnership to undertake this transformation by 2020.[27] In 2019, it was reported that the plant would be running on 50% pellets of plastic and 50% pellets of cardboard and paper by 2021 and was expected to operate for 20 years.[28] However, in April 2022, Simec Atlantis Energy announced it was abandoning the waste-to-energy conversion project,[29][1] following opposition from environmental groups[2] and the call in of the conversion application by the Welsh Government.[30]
In December 2023, the site's operator Simec Uskmouth Power Ltd obtained planning consent to demolish the station's two banks of cooling towers, with the demolition expected to be completed by May 2024.[31]
Severn Power Station
An 832 megawatt (MW) Combined Cycle Power Plant running on natural gas, known as Severn Power Station, was built on the site of Uskmouth A by Siemens. It comprises two gas turbines and two steam turbines, each operating on a single shaft, and entered commercial operations in November 2010. It was initially reported that it would cost £400 million to build and create 650 construction jobs.[10]
Originally owned and operated by the Danish company DONG Energy (now Ørsted), the station was acquired in December 2013 by MPF Holdings, which later changed its name to Calon Energy.[32] The station was put into a 'dormant state' in August 2020 following Calon Energy entering administration.[33]
