text: blyth power station blyth power station ( also known as cambois power station ) refers to a pair of now demolished coal - fired power stations , which were located on the northumberland coast in north east england . the two stations were built alongside each other on a site near cambois in northumberland , on the northern bank of the river blyth , between its tidal estuary and the north sea . the stations took their name from the town of blyth on the opposite bank of the estuary . blyth a power station was built and opened first but had a smaller generating capacity than its sister station , blyth b power station , which was built to its west four years later . the power stations ' four large chimneys were a landmark of the northumberland skyline for over 40 years ; the a station 's two chimneys each stood at 140 metres ( 460 ft ) ; the b station 's two chimneys were taller , at 170 metres ( 560 ft ) each . construction of the b station began shortly after the a station was completed . the stations were built during a period in which there were great advances in power station technology , and in the scale of production , which led to them having a variety of intermediate generator set sizes along with a mix of design styles . blyth a had a generating capacity of 480 megawatts ( mw ) and the b station 1 , 250 mw . their combined capacity of 1 , 730 mw briefly made blyth power station the largest electricity generation site in england , until ferrybridge c power station came into full operation in 1966 . the stations were capable of generating enough electricity to power 300 , 000 homes . the a station first generated electricity in 1958 , a year after the creation of the central electricity generating board , and the stations operated until 2001 . they were operated by the successors of the cegb , including national power , following the privatisation of the uk 's power industry . after their closure in 2001 , the stations were demolished over the course of two years , ending with the demolition of the stations ' chimneys on 7 december 2003 . as of 2009 , the site is still covered in debris from the demolition . rwe npower have proposed the construction of a clean coal - fired power station on the site . however , as of november 2009 , these plans have been postponed . history background following the second world war the demand for electricity increased in the united kingdom . in north east england , this led to the construction of two new power stations at stella , along with the expansion of stations at dunston and billingham , to meet the demand for power quickly . at blyth , a larger and more efficient plant was planned , consisting of six 100 megawatts ( mw ) generating units . this increased to six 120 mw units , before increasing again in the final proposal for an a station consisting of four 120 mw units and a b station consisting of two 275 mw units and two 350 mw units . this gave the a and b stations generating capacities of 480 mw and 1 , 250 mw respectively . the blyth power stations were to be an experiment , using a variety of generating set sizes at a time when engineers were trying to standardise power station plant and layout . blyth was the first in the uk to use generating sets larger than the then standard 30 mw and 60 mw . the station 's location was chosen because of its position within the super grid , rather than to be near a load centre . the site chosen for the construction of the power stations was close to the coal mining town of cambois . ordnance survey maps as far back as 1860 show that before building work began the land had been used as open farmland , with fields of varying shapes and sizes . construction permission for blyth a power station to be built was granted in february 1955 , and its construction took place between 1955 and 1960 . the station 's first unit went into operation in december 1958 , and the a station was fully operational by june 1960 . its four 120 mw sets were the first commissioned in britain of what became for a time that standardised size . the construction of the b station began on 4 december 1961 . its first unit was commissioned in december 1962 , and the rest of the station was fully operational by september 1966 . the station had a total generating capacity of 1 , 730 mw , the highest of any site in the uk until later in the same year , when ferrybridge c power station came into full operation . blyth b was the first power station in britain to have 275 mw sets installed . its two 350 mw sets were an intermediate stage toward the 500 mw standard , so very few of the 350 mw sets were ever commissioned in the uk . both of the stations were designed by l j & partners . they were engineered by merz & mclellan and built by the cleveland bridge company . design and specification the large 98 - hectare ( 240 - acre ) site was separated by bedlington - cambois road , with the stations ' main buildings , admin blocks and ash dock to the south of the road , and coal storage area and railway sidings to the north . the ground to the south of this road consisted of a 21 - metre ( 69 ft ) thick layer of boulder clay , overlaying sandstone and coal . the main foundations of the buildings were spread out , giving a load of about 2 . 3 tonnes ( 2 . 264 long tons ; 2 . 535 short tons ) per square foot . each of the stations featured large boiler houses , turbine halls , switch houses , flue gas cleaning plant and a pair of concrete chimneys . blyth a 's chimneys stood at 140 metres ( 460 ft ) and blyth b 's chimneys stood at 170 metres ( 560 ft ) , major landmarks on the south east northumberland skyline . each chimney weighed approximately 17 , 000 tonnes ( 16 , 730 long tons ; 18 , 740 short tons ) . the prominence and large scale of the buildings in the surrounding flat rural area , was the subject of much contemporary architectural debate . blyth a 's turbine hall was 120 metres ( 390 ft ) long by 37 metres ( 121 ft ) wide , and 26 metres ( 85 ft ) high . it was built from a reinforced concrete frame , clad with brickwork . it housed four 120 mw metropolitan - vickers 3 , 000 rpm turbo generators , each connected to a babcock & wilcox boiler , situated in the boiler house . each boiler and generator set operated independently , with no connections to other sets . coal fed into the boilers was pulverised by a babcock & wilcox pulveriser , fed by a coal bunker with a capacity of 2 , 000 tonnes ( 1 , 968 long tons ; 2 , 205 short tons ) . each pulveriser was capable of pulverising 15 tonnes ( 14 . 76 long tons ; 16 . 53 short tons ) of coal an hour , sufficient to keep its associated boiler at full output . the boiler house was 110 metres ( 360 ft ) long by 28 metres ( 92 ft ) wide and 48 metres ( 157 ft ) high . it was built from a steel frame with aluminium cladding . the a station 's design was an unusual mix of styles ; the brick construction of the turbine hall was a style used more often in the 1950s , while the aluminium and glass cladding boiler house was a construction style used more in the 1960s . the a station housed two control rooms , each of which served two generating sets and contained the controls to operate boilers , turbo generators and auxiliary plant . the a station 's switchgear was provided by a. reyrolle & company . blyth b 's turbine hall was 206 metres ( 676 ft ) long by 51 metres ( 167 ft ) wide and 30 metres ( 98 ft ) high . it housed two 275 mw and two 350 mw english electric 3 , 000 rpm turbo generators , each connected to a clarke chapman & co boiler , situated in the boiler house . the boiler house was 206 metres ( 676 ft ) long by 32 metres ( 105 ft ) wide and 52 metres ( 171 ft ) high . the coal fed into the boilers was pulverised by a babcock & wilcox pulveriser . each pulveriser was capable of pulverising 40 tonnes ( 39 . 37 long tons ; 44 . 09 short tons ) of coal an hour , and two pulverisers fed each boiler . both the turbine hall and boiler house were built from a steel frame , clad with aluminium and glazing . the roofs of the b station 's buildings were made from a lightweight aluminium decking . the b station 's switchgear was provided by a. reyrolle & company and by m & c . the volume of blyth b 's main buildings represented 0 . 76 cubic metres ( 27 cu ft ) / kw of installed capacity , while blyth a 's building volume represented 0 . 74 cubic metres ( 26 cu ft ) / kw . operations coal transportation the stations burned a mix of bituminous and anthracite coal . they consumed 51 , 000 tonnes ( 50 , 190 long tons ; 56 , 220 short tons ) of coal per week and had a peak consumption of 70 , 000 tonnes ( 68 , 890 long tons ; 77 , 160 short tons ) per week during the winter . they were well positioned to use coal from the northumberland and county durham coal fields . all of the coal used in the stations was brought to them via rail transport from uk coal stocks . trains delivered coal to the station using the north blyth branch of the blyth and tyne railway . the stations ' coal handling facility was fitted with a merry go round ( mgr ) coal delivery system in 1981 , after high capacity rapid discharge waggons became the british rail standard . this system involved the trains slowly passing over a hopper and automatically discharging their cargo through doors underneath the train . because of site space restrictions , a balloon loop track layout could not be constructed , so instead of being able to move continuously , trains arriving on site had to pull onto a reception track ; the locomotive would then uncouple and at the opposite end , before slowly moving over the unloading track hopper and discharging the coal and eventually leaving site . towards the end of the station 's operation , coal was more frequently brought in by road . all coal was delivered to and stored in a large open area to the north of the power stations . this had a tarmac barrier underneath it to prevent downward contamination . the coal was brought from the storage area to the station using a system of conveyor belts , which travelled over the bedlington - cambois road separating the two sites , before being integrated to feed both stations as necessary . cooling system water is essential to a thermal power station , to create the steam to turn the steam turbines and generate electricity . water used in the power station at blyth was extracted from the blyth harbour tidal basin at the ash dock . once used in the station , the hot water had to be cooled before it could be discharged . were used to convert steam from the turbines back into water . the stations ' condensers were of twin two - pass design and had a total cooling surface of 70 , 000 square feet ( 6 , 500 m2 ) . condensed water was then extracted by two duty pumps . the water then passed through a drains cooler . the cooled waste water was discharged into the sea off cambois beach below low tide level . ash removal pulverised fuel ash ( pfa ) and furnace bottom ash ( fba ) were byproducts produced through the burning of coal in the station . bottom ash was removed from ash hoppers at the bottom of the boilers by high pressure water jets . it then travelled to ash settling ponds via . for much of the station 's life , the station was served by a series of barges , which took the ash to dump 4 . 8 kilometres ( 3 . 0 mi ) out into the north sea . two barges provided this service over the years ; sir fon and mva . the barges were loaded by silos situated at a special dock to the east of the stations . however , dumping in the sea stopped in 1992 when the international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships prevented further dumping in the north sea . from then on fba was sold to the construction industry , while pfa was either dried for sale , or was disposed of at a licensed landfill on - site . closure and demolition closure in 1989 , blyth a won a place in the guinness book of records by setting the world record for total running hours in a plant of its size , when all four generating units achieved 200 , 000 running hours . with the privatisation of the uk 's electricity supply industry in 1990 , the station passed into the ownership of national power . in 1991 , the two 275 mw units at blyth b ( units 5 & 6 ) were decommissioned on the grounds of economy , despite the station having been modernised in the early 1980s . this decommissioning resulted in 260 job losses . during the 1990s , the station became one of the uk 's least efficient power stations . in 1998 , plans were announced to use the station as a test - bed for clean coal technology , but the plans did not come to fruition . in 1999 , then owners innogy decided to take blyth a out of operation , while blyth b began operating only at times of peak demand , because the stations had become surplus to their generating needs . from 1 april 2000 onwards the station was taken out of service for the summer months , because of the low demand for electricity at that time of year . however , staff were retained to maintain the station . innogy then began looking for a buyer for the station , to decide the site 's future . they had been in talks with american based nrg energy , over a £ 410 million purchase of the station , along with the power station in north lincolnshire . there had also been rumours that a deal had been made to convert the station into a waste - to - energy plant . however , any plans to save the station fell through and the generation of electricity at the station ceased on 31 january 2001 , after 43 years of operating , resulting in the loss of 131 jobs . at the time of its closure , blyth power station was the oldest coal - fired power station in britain . the station long outlived its life expectancy of 25 years . the length of time that the station was in use is partly due to its value in the national grid , as a " charge " near to a major node in the system . shortly after its closure , a joint proposal was made by the british army and the ministry of agriculture to burn the carcasses of animals slaughtered during the 2001 foot - and - mouth crisis in portable incinerators at the station . the station was proposed because of its high chimneys , but strong opposition from local residents and members of parliament , along with the proximity of over 100 , 000 people living within 5 kilometres ( 3 mi ) of the site , meant that the proposal was quickly rejected . demolition the demolition contract for the station was won by london - based company brown & mason . before the demolition of the stations ' main structures , it was required that they be decommissioned . this involved the removal of hazardous materials and contaminants , to keep in line with health & safety at work regulations . oils and chemicals were removed for re - use or disposal and storage tanks were flushed out . methanol was removed from hydrogen production plants on site , along with bottled propane used for welding . the remaining coal in the coal storage area was dispatched to operating power stations in other parts of the country . the landfill site where ash waste from the station was dumped was . asbestos used in the stations was removed prior to the demolition of the stations ' structures . the stations were demolished between 2001 and 2003 . the smaller buildings and structures were first to be demolished . one worker was killed during the demolition work , in may 2001 , crushed underneath an electrical connection box which fell from a wall . on 31 october 2001 , the ash silo which stood at the ash dock was toppled using explosives to demolish the stilts the structure stood on . the silo was then dismantled by bulldozers . all of the smaller structures had been removed by july 2002 . on 11 july 2002 , the a station 's boiler house was demolished . the 61 - metre ( 200 ft ) high coal conveyor belt was demolished on 6 february 2003 . the station 's precipitators were demolished on 27 march and 17 april 2003 . on 1 may 2003 , the b station 's bunker bay building was demolished , and on 22 may 2003 , the stations air heater was demolished . a fire started at the station on 17 june 2003 , when a bunker caught fire after hot cutting equipment set fire to coke remnants . all of the larger structures had been demolished by july 2003 . it was planned for the stations ' chimneys to be demolished in october 2003 , but that had to be postponed due to the complexity of the demolition . however , at noon on 7 december 2003 , the four chimneys , each weighing 17 , 000 tonnes ( 16 , 730 long tons ; 18 , 740 short tons ) , were demolished using a total of 150 kilograms ( 330 lb ) of the industrial explosive . the demolition is thought to have been the biggest chimney demolition in 50 years . present and future uses of the site since innogy was taken over by rwe in 2002 , the site has been owned by rwe npower . the only substantial structures remaining are the national grid and substations . these buildings will continue to remain and there are plans to extend the national grid substation . the rest of the power station site is unused brownfield land . the site of the main station buildings is currently covered in crushed concrete , left over from the demolition process . underground workings , such as tunnels and culverts , also still exist on the site . the coal storage area to the north has been and ash settling ponds have been filled with concrete . some ash mounds are still situated to the east of the site . clean coal power station in may 2007 , npower announced plans to build a new £ 2 billion clean coal power station on the site . the proposed station would have generated electricity using three 800 mw advanced supercritical steam , high - efficiency coal - fired units , giving the station a total generation capacity of 2 , 400 mw . this was one of two new coal - fired stations proposed by npower in the uk . the site was chosen because of its readily available proximity to the national grid , its rail and port links , and its position next to the north sea , which is useful for both cooling water , and as a potential co2 storage site , where co2 could be piped to oil and gas wells , and saline aquifers . the station would have had an efficiency of 46 % , which in comparison to conventional subcritical coal - fired power stations , equates to a reduction in carbon dioxide ( co2 ) of 23 % per unit of electricity generated . the station would have utilised pollution abatement and gas cleaning systems , including selective catalytic reduction , to remove nitrogen oxide , and flue - gas desulphurisation , to remove sulphur dioxide . the station would also have been able to allow the installation of carbon capture and storage ( ccs ) technology , when it becomes technically and commercially viable . there was also a possibility that the station may have co - fired biomass , and heat as a combined heat and power plant . coal was expected to be able to be delivered to the station by rail , as well as by ship to the port of blyth . the station 's coal storage area would have stored a minimum 45 days worth of coal supply . all of the station 's pulverised fuel ash ( pfa ) may have been sold to the construction industry , transported to which in dry dust tankers . unsold pfa and furnace bottom ash would be taken to a landfill site by road . fifteen hundred jobs would have been created during the station 's construction , and more than 200 full - time jobs would have been available once the station was operating . the environmental assessment report for the proposed station was submitted to the department of trade and industry in 2007 , and the application for the development was to be made to the secretary of state for business , enterprise and regulatory reform once the environmental impact assessment was completed . a contract had already been signed with the shaw group to design and engineer the station . if npower had been granted permission to build the new station , construction work would have begun in 2010 , and the station was expected to be fully commissioned by 2014 . it would have been one of the most efficient coal - fired power stations of its size in the uk . blyth valley council said the proposal did not fit with regeneration plans in the area . residents living in the area voiced opinions that the land should be redeveloped for other purposes , rather than continue to be used as an industrial site . the mp for wansbeck , denis murphy , stated that , although the project would have benefits for the area , he still had concerns . ronnie campbell , the mp for blyth valley , claimed he would welcome the development as long as it did not have an adverse effect on the overall regeneration of the area . on 5 june 2008 , npower reopened the original gatehouse at the entrance to the power station 's site , to provide a " drop - in " centre for the public to find out more about the proposed plans . in august 2009 , following a visit to cambois from minister of state for energy at the department of energy and climate change joan ruddock , it was revealed that the government were determined to go ahead with four new coal - fired power stations . she stated that they had no scepticism about ccs technology , with a competition having been started between the big energy companies to create a viable form of the technology , set to end in 2014 . however this meant the station may not have been completed until 2020 . despite this support , rwe announced in november 2009 that they have postponed their plans for the new power station . they are not yet going make a formal planning application for the plant , saying that the time is not right for such a huge investment . dave carlton , rwe 's project manager , has said that they " see the site as an important one , both for rwe npower and in terms of the uk ’ s future power generation ” , and so rwe npower have retained the site for a possible future power station . malcolm reid of people against new coal stations , a group opposed to the power station development , said : " we would now like to see northumberland county council re - designate the cambois site for green , clean technology , to match what is happening at the new and renewable energy centre ( ) in blyth . it is a perfect area for a factory for offshore wind turbines and housing development . if cambois is re - designated then the prospect of the area being regenerated rises colossally . " wind turbine factory in april 2010 , malcolm reid proposed the station 's site as a possible location for a £ 80 million siemens wind turbine factory . the factory would create 700 jobs and up to 1 , 500 further jobs in the supply chain if built . he has said the site would be perfect for the factory because of its close proximity to and the site 's existing deep dock facilities . the factory is likely to be built either in blyth or on humberside . social and cultural impact the power stations had very few television and film appearances : in 1991 , the site was used as a shooting location for the sci - fi horror film alien 3 . various locations in the north east of england were used in shooting the film , and the power station provided the location for some shots of the planet surface . during the latter stages of the stations ' demolition , a documentary was made . the documentary was included in the channel five television programme the demolition squad . despite the small amount of media usage of the power stations , their four chimneys were still a strong landmark within the south east northumberland landscape . they could be seen from as far south as 18 kilometres ( 11 mi ) away at , in newcastle upon tyne , and over an 13 . 2 kilometres ( 8 . 2 mi ) stretch of coast , from seaton sluice up to newbiggin - by - the - sea . this is mostly because the stations were constructed in a largely flat , rural area . in 1995 , the site was considered for scheduling by english heritage , because of its national importance as a good example of a late 20th - century power station . it was also important because of its use as a testing ground for various generating sizes , from which came success in the uk 's electricity industry . however , by then the station 's buildings were in poor condition and it would have been financially difficult to ensure their long term preservation . instead , it was decided a comprehensive study and photographic record of the station would be commissioned . due to the closure of blyth power stations , along with the power stations at dunston and stella in the 1980s and 1990s respectively , the northern part of north east england has become heavily dependent upon the national grid for electrical supply . however , there are still two large power stations at hartlepool and wilton in the south of the region .