Ocker Hill Power Station

Ocker Hill Power Station
Location of Ocker Hill Power Station
Country	England
Location	Tipton
Coordinates	52°32′N 2°02′W / 52.54°N 2.03°W / 52.54; -2.03Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°02′W / 52.54°N 2.03°W / 52.54; -2.03
Status	Decommissioned
Construction began	1901
Commission date	1902
Decommission date	1977

Ocker Hill Power Station was situated at Ocker Hill in Tipton, Staffordshire, at a point where the Walsall Canal intersected the L&NWR Wednesbury to Princes End railway line. It was opened in 1902 by the Midland Electric Corporation for Power Distribution Ltd.(MEC) and supplied electricity at 7 kV two phase 50 Hz to much of the Black Country. At the time of its building it was stated by the Stourbridge County Express that it was planned to be the largest power station in England. Although this may have been the original intention, it was never achieved.

The original plant comprised two Ferranti 800 kW reciprocating steam alternators and a 1500 kW Ferranti/Yates and Thom machine. Because of the rapid advance in the design of steam turbines, no more reciprocating machines were installed, and by 1906 a Willans/Dick Kerr steam turbine had been installed to meet the growing load, the first of fifteen turbines to be installed during the life of the station. In 1927, ownership passed to the new West Midlands Joint Electricity Authority (WMJEA), and with the building of the National Grid in the early 1930s it became a "selected station". In 1948 it became part of the newly created British Electricity Authority (later to become, by reorganisation the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and then the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). It closed in 1977, as a result of the mid-1970s recession, which also claimed many other serviceable stations.