Cockenzie power station

Cockenzie power station was a coal-fired power station in East Lothian, Scotland. It was situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, between the town of Prestonpans and the villages of Cockenzie and Port Seton, 8 mi (13 km) east of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The station dominated the local coastline with its distinctive twin chimneys from 1967 until the chimneys' demolition in September 2015. Initially operated by the nationalised South of Scotland Electricity Board, it was operated by Scottish Power following the privatisation of the industry in 1991. In 2005 a WWF report named Cockenzie as the UK's least carbon-efficient power station, in terms of carbon dioxide released per unit of energy generated.

The 1,200 megawatt power station ceased generating energy on 15 March 2013 around 8.30am. There are plans to replace the station with a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station. The removal of the power station was done in stages with the twin chimneys and turbine hall being demolished in a controlled explosion on 26 September 2015, the front section of the boiler house on 4 November 2015 and the rest of the boiler house on 17 December 2015. This was the last remaining major structure to be removed.

Under a design by the firm of celebrated architect Sir Robert Matthew, construction of Cockenzie power station began in 1959 on the site of the former Preston Links Colliery. The site is also thought to have been the hiding place of General John Cope after the defeat of his army at the Battle of Prestonpans on 21 September 1745. Much of the electrical equipment for the station was manufactured by Bruce Peebles & Co., Edinburgh. SSEB set aside £60 million for the station's construction; the final cost was £54 million, around £6 million under budget.

The station began generating electricity in 1967 for the then South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB). It was officially opened on 24 May 1968 by William Ross, Secretary of State for Scotland. In 2000-01, Cockenzie generated a record load factor, supplying 3,563 GWh of electricity and burning 1,500,000 tonnes of coal.

The power station occupied a 24-hectare (59-acre) site. It generated electricity at a frequency of 50 hertz using four identical 300-megawatt (MW) generating units, for a peak supply of 1200 MW.

Coal was originally supplied to the station directly from the deep mines of the neighbouring Midlothian Coalfield, but these have since been exhausted or closed. Subsequently coal was supplied from open cast mines in the Lothians, Fife, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire. Russian coal was used latterly as it has a low sulfur content which helped reduce sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions to the atmosphere. The power station was the first to use the "merry-go-round" system of coal deliveries by rail. This system uses hopper wagons which carry around 914 tonnes of coal per train. Coal was also delivered by lorries.

Coal was delivered to the station's coal plant, which has the capacity to hold up to 900,000 tonnes of coal on a storage bing. The coal plant and storage bing were situated on the opposite side of B1348 road between Prestonpans and Cockenzie and Port Seton, and the main station. The coal, known as 'raw coal' at this stage was weighed, sampled and screened for metal and stones before being transported to the main station and stored in bunkers. Coal was transported from the coal plant to storage bunkers in the main station by a conveyor belt.

There were six pulverising mills per unit which ground down the raw coal until it had the consistency of sand. The ground coal is called 'pulverised fuel' (PF). PF burns more efficiently than large lumps of coal, which reduces waste. The PF was then blown into the furnace along with preheated air by six large mechanical fans called Primary Air (PA) Fans. At full load each unit burned around 100 tonnes of coal per hour.