Alan, I too was a student apprentice at Uskmoth 1963 to 1968, nominally the B Station but in fact at both. Station Superintendent Mr Lloyd-Williams, Maintenance Super. Alan Leadbetter, (became Station Super. at Skelton Grange). I moved on to Carmarthen Bay and ended up at Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station and was lucky to get early retirement. Looking back the training we got was very good, craft appreciation at Penarth, Maintenance, Operations, Chemistry, Drawing Office, Efficiency and other departments. I usually refer to myself as a power station engineer, too many aspects to go into detail. No computers back then. Apprentice away-days were quite memorable.
Good times long past, I’m 81 this week.

Uskmouth A. If my memory serves me well! 12 boilers each of nominal 40Mw (E) capacity 900deg F 900psi into a range system feeding 6 Parsons turbines each of 60MW. so theoretically spare boiler capacity. Flue dust extraction was provided partially by electrostatic precipitators running at 50Kv provided by mechanical (yes mechanical!) rectifiers, running syncronised to 50 Hz, there was a distinct smell of ozone in the air anywhere near them, They were a awsome picture to behold when they became unstable, the arms drew a circular arc of crackling sparks about 5 ft diameter!
In the early days when sets 1 to 4 were running and set 5 was being commissioned, the exciter to set 5 was to be switched off as part of the tests. Unfortunately the excitor to set 4 was switched off by accident, hence with no electrical load set 4 oversped, The mechanical overspeed bolts which should have tripped the set did not work ( investigations later showed deposits has seized the bolts). No idea what speed the turbine reached but it eventually exploded, live steam everywhere parts of the LP rotor blades were found on the opposite bank of the Usk. Parts of the LP rotor also went straight through a thick brick wall into the the boiler house and severed a 14inch (?) pipe – luckily it was an atmospheric pipe, it would have been a different story if the adjacent steam range pipe had been severed! Poor set operator amid destruction and live steam, managed somehow to close the stop valve to the turbine, a heavy and slow job – but somehow he did it. An exciting time but when fully commissioned the A station provided a long and reliable service more reliable than the B station.

Hi Geoffrey, my Grandfather is Mike Davies. I’ve heard him talk about you many times! I have many happy memories of visiting the Power Station as a child!

Great to hear your comments on your time spent at Uskmouth. Units 13 and 14 will be converted to fire waste derived pellet fuels with unit 15 remaining un-converted.

The project includes a 20 yr relifing and general modernisation to get the most from the units in the future. We will keep this station going with the professionalism, dedication and team spirit of old!

I’d love to hear more about the A station as it was gone before my time on site – what boiler/combustion system was used on the 6 units?