The New Fulham Electrical Power Station

Abstract

THE new power station at Fulham on the banks of the Thames was opened formally on September 26. It occupies an area of 15 acres and has a river frontage of 1,300 feet. It is an extension of the existing plant of the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham, but the disparity between its size and the demand required for the borough shows that the new station is an undertaking to serve the Grid. Two sets of 60,000 kilowatts:each were installed this year and a third set is now being added. The boiler house is at right angles to the river and the turbine room is parallel to the river. Two white reinforced concrete chimneys three hundred feet high are already built, and when the Station is completed there will be four of them. Three colliers have been ordered, each of them capable of carrying 2,300 tons of coal, and the jetty has three travelling cranes each capable of handling -175 tons an hour. The cranes pass the coal to weighing machines, whence it is fed to the furnaces on two belt conveyors which run at 300 feet per minute. Using only two cranes enables a collier to be unloaded in 6| hours. When complete and working at approximately half its maximum power, the station will consume roughly 2,000 tons of coal per day. The final fleet of colliers will consist of six boats capable of sea voyages and of passing under the seventeen bridges up the River Thames to Fulham. The new station has a dignified appearance and in conjunction with the Battersea power station on the opposite bank of the Thames will enable the Central Electricity Board to balance the London load.