Uskmouth B Power Station
Visited with @UrbandonedTeam, @DustySensorPhotography, @huyt.urb, @little_ boy_explores and @KPUrban_
Since there are many reports on Uskmouth, I just complied the basic history from Wiki for those who want to read it.
Uskmouth B power station was authorised in May 1957 and built in 1959. It has a generating capacity of 363 MW, which is enough to power 360,000 homes, or the surrounding area of Newport. The electricity is provided by three 110 MW generating sets. Uskmouth B was one of the CEGB’s twenty steam power stations with the highest thermal efficiency. It is situated in an essential position for the National Grid, due to the lack of power stations situated in the south of Wales. 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, but in 1998, it was purchased by AES. 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. The station's generating capacity was also increased to 393 MW. In 2001 the work was completed, and the station was reopened. The station was earmarked for closure in 2014 and subsequently mothballed. 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. These plans have since taken priority and as a result, Uskmouth has seen very infrequent use as a coal plant; with April 2017 being the last occasion.
Uskmouth B was always a station we seemed to dismiss as a group. We were very intrigued by the 50s station when looking back through older reports but since nothing major had popped up we always chose to leave it off our list. It wasn’t until we began travelling to South Wales in December 2020 and up until to March this year that we finally thought about giving it a go. After exploring Aberthaw on two occasions, it only felt right to complete the other prominent station in South Wales. I rounded the lads up and headed to meet Oli and Korben in the Midlands.
Some externals.
Shot looking from the roof over the coal yard and conveyors after we had finished exploring the station in the morning.
Hopefully this shows a good update of the condition of the station in comparison to the reports from 2018.
The turbine hall is where we headed first. We were still being cautious at this point and wanted to observe the room from above before heading onto the floor to take a closer look. We found a way on top of the control room’s roofs due to the fact the gantry crane was blocked off. There was clearly water coming into the hall as tarps had been setup over two of the turbines, which ruined the shots a tad but wasn’t the end of the world. At least they are trying to protect them.
After spending a while shooting from above, it was time to head down the floor. We were still being careful on the off chance there were people inside. As we peered down the length of the turbine hall from the switch room end, we could see silhouettes moving in a room at the opposite end of the room so remained very quiet as we snuck around the floor.
Entering the turbine hall (phone shot by @KPUrban_)
The control rooms are situated on the opposite side of the room compared to some of the other well explored stations and there is a CR for each turbine. We managed to get in all of them, but they were all identical.
Unit 13 CR.
The CR for Unit 14 was the best to shoot. Each room had all the PCs on and plenty of flashing lights, so we refrained from touching.
Back other on the other side of the hall was the staff areas including the kitchens and bath house.
We started beneath the turbine hall and moved upwards when exploring the boiler house.
To be continued…
Visited with @UrbandonedTeam, @DustySensorPhotography, @huyt.urb, @little_ boy_explores and @KPUrban_
Since there are many reports on Uskmouth, I just complied the basic history from Wiki for those who want to read it.
Uskmouth B power station was authorised in May 1957 and built in 1959. It has a generating capacity of 363 MW, which is enough to power 360,000 homes, or the surrounding area of Newport. The electricity is provided by three 110 MW generating sets. Uskmouth B was one of the CEGB’s twenty steam power stations with the highest thermal efficiency. It is situated in an essential position for the National Grid, due to the lack of power stations situated in the south of Wales. 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, but in 1998, it was purchased by AES. 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. The station's generating capacity was also increased to 393 MW. In 2001 the work was completed, and the station was reopened. The station was earmarked for closure in 2014 and subsequently mothballed. 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. These plans have since taken priority and as a result, Uskmouth has seen very infrequent use as a coal plant; with April 2017 being the last occasion.
Uskmouth B was always a station we seemed to dismiss as a group. We were very intrigued by the 50s station when looking back through older reports but since nothing major had popped up we always chose to leave it off our list. It wasn’t until we began travelling to South Wales in December 2020 and up until to March this year that we finally thought about giving it a go. After exploring Aberthaw on two occasions, it only felt right to complete the other prominent station in South Wales. I rounded the lads up and headed to meet Oli and Korben in the Midlands.
Some externals.
Shot looking from the roof over the coal yard and conveyors after we had finished exploring the station in the morning.
Hopefully this shows a good update of the condition of the station in comparison to the reports from 2018.
The turbine hall is where we headed first. We were still being cautious at this point and wanted to observe the room from above before heading onto the floor to take a closer look. We found a way on top of the control room’s roofs due to the fact the gantry crane was blocked off. There was clearly water coming into the hall as tarps had been setup over two of the turbines, which ruined the shots a tad but wasn’t the end of the world. At least they are trying to protect them.
After spending a while shooting from above, it was time to head down the floor. We were still being careful on the off chance there were people inside. As we peered down the length of the turbine hall from the switch room end, we could see silhouettes moving in a room at the opposite end of the room so remained very quiet as we snuck around the floor.
Entering the turbine hall (phone shot by @KPUrban_)
The control rooms are situated on the opposite side of the room compared to some of the other well explored stations and there is a CR for each turbine. We managed to get in all of them, but they were all identical.
Unit 13 CR.
The CR for Unit 14 was the best to shoot. Each room had all the PCs on and plenty of flashing lights, so we refrained from touching.
Back other on the other side of the hall was the staff areas including the kitchens and bath house.
We started beneath the turbine hall and moved upwards when exploring the boiler house.
To be continued…
