Cottam Power Station, Multiple Visits 2019/20
Since I first posted this report back in October of 2019, I have made numerous returns to Cottam. I’ve sat on the photographs for quite a while and I believe now is an appropriate time for an update..
I made my first visit to Cottam one night in October of 2019, just over one month after the stations final desynchronization from the national grid, which took place on September 23rd at 15:00PM.
The site at Cottam is situated on the eastern boarder of Nottinghamshire. It consists of two power stations, one coal fired station (Cottam Power Station) and Cottam Development Centre, a CCGT station. (This report features the coal plant only.)
Cottam Power Station's construction began in April 1964 and the plant was finally commissioned by 1969. Initially the site was founded by the Central Electricity Generating Board but in later years it was sold on to EDF Energy.
When in operation the site had the ability to produce up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power 2,500,000 homes.
It was announced on January 7th 2019 that Cottam power station would fire down for the last time on September 30th 2019 due to challenging marketing conditions. Originally the station was designed to operate for only 30 years. Instead, it nearly doubled that!
After many minutes of slipping and sliding through the earthy terrain and crawling under cattle purposed electric fences, we eventually approached the perimeter fencing.
This is where things start to become difficult..
The perimeter security at Cottam is high tier. Constant dog unit patrols, rumble sensors on the fencing, anti dig sensors along the ground and an overall 90% CCTV coverage with high grade motion sensors is not at all adequate for someone planning on scaling the fence to access the site..
To cut a long eventful story short, the next twenty minutes or so consisted of a lot of trial and error, but regardless to it, with a lot of sweat, we found ourselves standing in a plantation on the site.
Since I first posted this report back in October of 2019, I have made numerous returns to Cottam. I’ve sat on the photographs for quite a while and I believe now is an appropriate time for an update..
I made my first visit to Cottam one night in October of 2019, just over one month after the stations final desynchronization from the national grid, which took place on September 23rd at 15:00PM.
The site at Cottam is situated on the eastern boarder of Nottinghamshire. It consists of two power stations, one coal fired station (Cottam Power Station) and Cottam Development Centre, a CCGT station. (This report features the coal plant only.)
Cottam Power Station's construction began in April 1964 and the plant was finally commissioned by 1969. Initially the site was founded by the Central Electricity Generating Board but in later years it was sold on to EDF Energy.
When in operation the site had the ability to produce up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power 2,500,000 homes.
It was announced on January 7th 2019 that Cottam power station would fire down for the last time on September 30th 2019 due to challenging marketing conditions. Originally the station was designed to operate for only 30 years. Instead, it nearly doubled that!
The Intrusion(s)
The night was silent & bitterly cold. Arrival to the site was very unwelcoming, as just by passing the power station after hours resulted in one of the many security vehicles tailgating us around the surrounding villages, clearly trying to intimidate. After blitzing out of Cottam village we quickly shook off the unwanted convoy to which we had assembled and tucked up in a discrete back road somewhere in Rampton and waited it out for a few hours, noting every street patrol took place.
Every 15-20 minutes was the answer we concluded with.
The time now being 1am and we considered it game. After not seeing a patrol for 5 minutes, we figured it would safe to begin closing in on the station and departed from the car to which we had arrived in. Hastily we made our way through Rampton village, although we didn’t make it far before seeing hazard lights ricocheting off surrounding buildings, headed in our direction. ‘Fuck' security was doubling back!
With no time to hesitate, I jumped through a bush into the nearest garden, whilst the others took refuge behind cars in some involuntary persons driveway..
Remaining still, the security vehicle passed at a speed no faster than 20mph.
We couldn’t stay idle. It was too bait. If we were to be spotted, it would be obvious as to what we were attempting..
As soon as the vehicle was cleared from line of site we bolted across the village, through some more bushes and into the fields to where we were obscured from view and hidden by the cover of night.
Slowly and cautiously we trudged through muddy fields towards the station, with the constant view of orange flashing lights circling the perimeter roads at a non stop rate, and with no actual set plan of entry, the thoughts of going home empty handed began growing..
The night was silent & bitterly cold. Arrival to the site was very unwelcoming, as just by passing the power station after hours resulted in one of the many security vehicles tailgating us around the surrounding villages, clearly trying to intimidate. After blitzing out of Cottam village we quickly shook off the unwanted convoy to which we had assembled and tucked up in a discrete back road somewhere in Rampton and waited it out for a few hours, noting every street patrol took place.
Every 15-20 minutes was the answer we concluded with.
The time now being 1am and we considered it game. After not seeing a patrol for 5 minutes, we figured it would safe to begin closing in on the station and departed from the car to which we had arrived in. Hastily we made our way through Rampton village, although we didn’t make it far before seeing hazard lights ricocheting off surrounding buildings, headed in our direction. ‘Fuck' security was doubling back!
With no time to hesitate, I jumped through a bush into the nearest garden, whilst the others took refuge behind cars in some involuntary persons driveway..
Remaining still, the security vehicle passed at a speed no faster than 20mph.
We couldn’t stay idle. It was too bait. If we were to be spotted, it would be obvious as to what we were attempting..
As soon as the vehicle was cleared from line of site we bolted across the village, through some more bushes and into the fields to where we were obscured from view and hidden by the cover of night.
Slowly and cautiously we trudged through muddy fields towards the station, with the constant view of orange flashing lights circling the perimeter roads at a non stop rate, and with no actual set plan of entry, the thoughts of going home empty handed began growing..
After many minutes of slipping and sliding through the earthy terrain and crawling under cattle purposed electric fences, we eventually approached the perimeter fencing.
This is where things start to become difficult..
The perimeter security at Cottam is high tier. Constant dog unit patrols, rumble sensors on the fencing, anti dig sensors along the ground and an overall 90% CCTV coverage with high grade motion sensors is not at all adequate for someone planning on scaling the fence to access the site..
To cut a long eventful story short, the next twenty minutes or so consisted of a lot of trial and error, but regardless to it, with a lot of sweat, we found ourselves standing in a plantation on the site.
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