Tilbury A Power Station: UK March 2015

Tilbury A was an oil fired power station on the river Thames next to Tilbury Fort. Construction began here in 1951 and the first generating set was commissioned in Sept 1956 the final unit was commissioned in December 1957. The plant was officially opened on the 6th of June 1958 by Sir Francis Whitmore.

The plant consisted of six generating units producing a total of 360MW. Three were built by English Electric Co. Ltd. The other three were built by C. A. Parsons & Co. Ltd. They ran at speeds of 3000rpm and generated electricity at 11,800 volts. There were three control rooms on the shop floor each one controlled two generating sets and a final control room in the administration block which you see here. This controlled generator output, station electrical services and the outgoing feeders.

The original plan was for the plant to run on coal but before it was fired up the boilers were converted so it could run on oil as well as coal.

The plant was decommissioned in 1981 and mothballed. Later in 1999 the production side of plant was demolished leaving the administration block. It seems this was mainly so they could use the building for storage of parts etc for the larger plant next door.

For some reason it was believed this building was listed, sadly it was not and was demolished sometime during 2016.

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