Southampton Corporation Electricity Works
1928 The Southampton Corporation Electricity Works are built on piled foundations on reclaimed land at the estuary of the river Test. The area of the site is over six acres, and can be increased when necessary. The plant at present installed and in course of erection has a generating capacity of 27,760 kW., and additional plant to generate 15,000 kW is to be installed next year. The boiler plant consists of ten Babcock and Wilcox boilers generating steam at 200 lb. pressure. and a total temperature of 538 deg. Fah.,which is to be increased to 750 deg. Fah. A feature of the station is the Prat steel chimney 100ft. high and 7ft. 10in. maximum internal diameter. This chimney operates on the ejector principle, an induced draught fan withdrawing some of the hot gases from the main flue and projecting them through a jet in a contraction in the chimney stack. An effective draught of 0.75in. of water at the boiler dampers is obtained by this arrangement for an expenditure of only 25 horse-power at the fan motor.
The generating plant consistes of a Willans and Robinson reactive turbine driving two 600 kW Brown-Boveri direct current generators, a [[Cole, Marchant and Morley vertical triple-expansion engine, with Corliss valves driving a Dick-Kerr 1000 kW generator, two B.T.H.-Curtis impulse turbines driving a 1500 kW, and a 3000 kW alternator, a Metropolitan-Vickers impulse turbine driving a 5000 kW alternator, and a Parsons reaction turbine driving a 6000 kW alternator. A Fraser and Chalmers-Hick, Hargreaves 10,000 kW turbo-alternator set is in course of erection. The condensing system comprises a pond of about two million gallons capacity, which is replenished at every high tide.' [1]