Abstract :
The paper describes some of the design features of five out of a number of power stations designed and mainly constructed before the Electricity Act of 1947, which established the British Electricity Authority. The stations described were built for different supply undertakings under arrangements with the Central Electricity Board. Some were connected direct to the Grid system and others were to supply a local load in addition to exporting energy to the Grid, with wide variations in the load curves. It therefore appeared to the authors that the technical features of such stations, designed as they were for a variety of operating conditions, would be of interest. Since 1948 the British Electricity Authority has been able to locate and build stations to suit wider national requirements, and has been able to accelerate the trend to large units and to institute a measure of standardization. In view of this tendency to standardization it should be noted that all the stations discussed embody many features, not all of which are fully resolved in the minds of designers; on these features the authors would like to submit their views. They claim that the general principles of design of the stations are fundamentally correct, as representing the general good practice of the time, or as valid for the particular circumstances. The five stations described in the paper were commissioned between 1942 and 1951, one (Earley) being a war-emergency station. They have been chosen to display variety in size and number of units and in steam conditions. Reliability was a first consideration, with true overall economy (as opposed to highest possible thermal efficiency) coming second. For this reason simplicity was preferred to any complication which might offer problematical improvement in efficiency. Nevertheless, four of the stations have appeared among the ten most efficient B.E.A. stations in successive years, and one (Littlebrook ?B?) has shown the highest efficiency in the country.
