Fiddler’s Ferry power station was a coal-fired power station located on the River Mersey at Warrington in Cheshire. Construction began in 1964 by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). In a bid to combine efforts at the design and construction stages the boiler and turbo-generator plant were replicated from West Burton power station located in Nottinghamshire.

Upon privatisation of the UK’s energy industry in 1990 operation and ownership of the power station was transferred to Powergen. In 1999 Fiddler’s Ferry, along with Ferrybridge power station in North Yorkshire, were sold to Edison Mission Energy. They were both subsequently sold to AEP Energy Services in 2001 and again to SSE in 2004 for £136million.

The four 500 MW single shaft turbo-generator units manufactured by English Electric are arranged lengthwise along the turbine hall and provided electricity for around two million people

One of the 500 MW units was retired in March 2019. In June 2019, SSE confirmed that Fiddler’s Ferry would cease generation on 31 March 2020. The plant was desynchronized from the National Grid, ending nearly 50 years of electricity generation. Demolition of the station began in 2020 and was forecast to take up to seven years.

Buildings and Plant Detail

Fiddler’s Ferry Image Gallery

Visit the plant detail pages above to view more images from each area of the power plant

Documents and Schematics

Each turbo-generator set comprised a single-shaft five-cylinder impulse reaction turbine with a single reheat stage on the intermediate pressure cylinder. The three low pressure cylinders exhaust steam to the condensers. The generators were rated at 588MVA. The stator windings were water cooled whilst the rotor windings were cooled by hydrogen gas circulated by a blower on the generator shaft.

Fiddler’s Ferry Generating Units

List of power generating units at Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station:

Turbine Hall Pictures

Boiler Feed Pump Pictures

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The boiler house at Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station contained the steam generating boilers and pulverised fuel mills. The four reheat boiler units were manufactured by International Combustion, were single divided furnace water tube boilers. The boilers had an evaporation capacity of 435 kg/s at 162 bar. The superheated steam temperature was 569°C.

When the station was on full load each boiler would burn 200 tons of coal per hour, giving a total for the whole station of 19,200 tons per day. The walls of the furnace were composed of 2.5 inch bore steel tubes filled with water which was turned into steam by the heat from the furnace.

The coal passed through pulverising mills where it was ground to a fine powder before being blown into the furnaces by a heated air stream. The pulverised fuel mills and coal feeders were also manufactured by International Combustion. There were 24 PF mills, 6 per unit. The FD Fans and ID Fans were supplied by Davidson, and there were 8 of each (2 per boiler).

Boiler House Pictures

Pulverised Fuel Mill and Coal Delivery Pictures

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The main control room at Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station was located in a building adjacent to the turbine hall. All aspects of plant control were undertaken from here, including start up, running and shut down of all four units.

Control Room Pictures

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Four English Electric Twin Avon gas turbo-generator sets, each rated at17.5 megawatt (MW), were installed in a separate building to the south of the 275,000 volt substation. Each set was arranged to supply the electrical auxiliary load of one of the 500 MW steam turbine/boiler units at times of low grid frequency.

When conditions of falling frequency was detected by a low frequency relay, an automatic sequence would be initiated, which runs up the generators and matches speed and voltage of the corresponding 500 MW sat.

Gas Turbine Pictures

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