Drakelow Power Station

Drakelow Power Station
Drakelow C Power Station in 2002
Location of Drakelow Power Station
Country	England
Location	Derbyshire, East Midlands
Coordinates	52°46′25″N 1°39′24″W / 52.773608°N 1.656805°W / 52.773608; -1.656805Coordinates: 52°46′25″N 1°39′24″W / 52.773608°N 1.656805°W / 52.773608; -1.656805
Commission date	1955
Decommission date	2003
Operator(s)	CEGB Powergen E.ON UK
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Coal-fired
grid reference SK231196

Drakelow Power Station refers to a series of three now demolished coal-fired power stations located 2.4 mi (3.9 km) south of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England, on the River Trent. However, the station was actually located in the county of Derbyshire, in the East Midlands. The power station was a distinguishable landmark of Burton, which is most famous for its breweries.

The Drakelow power stations were built on the site of Drakelow Hall, a stately home on the south bank of the River Trent. Twenty eight generations of the Gresley family had considered the estate as nothing more than their ancestral home. It had appeared in the Domesday Book and the family could trace its history back to the time of the Norse Vikings. A book that was published in 1899, "The Gresleys of Drakelowe", is the accepted history of the family. The hall was demolished in 1934 and its site then earmarked for development in the early 1940s. The remains of the Elizabethan hall occupied part of the site even after the power station was built. The site was chosen for the construction of a power station because it was around 750 acres (3.0 km²) in size and was within close proximity to the River Trent as well as the main Leicester to Burton railway to the north, the Burton to Tamworth road to the south-east, and was close to the East Midlands coalfields.

By the 1940s, the estate was no longer owned by the Gresley family, but by Sir Clifford Gothard. The sale of the land was agreed for a three phase development of electricity generation on the site. Planning permission for the construction of the station was granted in March 1950. The £23 Million project was considered a great technological advancement in its day. Rapid progress was being made with the development of larger boilers and generator units. Drakelow A Power Station was commissioned in 1955 and had a capacity of 240 megawatts (MW). By the time of its opening, work had already started on its larger 480 MW sister, Drakelow B Power Station. It used four 120 MW units and was commissioned between 1959 and 1960. Both the A and B stations were brick built. The A station had two chimneys each at 360 ft high. B station also had two chimneys (slightly taller) at 400 ft high. They were cooled by four cooling towers each 300 ft high.