Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 23 January 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 68) – Down the Marina”

With plenty of opportunities for technological minded students and workers, the second of the ESB’s led projects in 1950s Cork was that that of the steam powered station on The Marina. Irish industry showed an overwhelming preference for electric power because of its availability, economy and convenience. The demand showed an increase of 49 million units in 1953 – an increase of 47 per cent in the number of units used by consumers connected under rural electrification and a figure which strongly demonstrated the necessity for such extra electrical power. The Irish Independent remarked; “Every day more and more farmers are making use of electricity for such everyday tasks as milking, churning, root pulping, grinding and so on. The farmer’s wife has a big welcome for such amenities as a cooker, washing machine, a kettle, an iron or a refrigerator, formerly available only to her city sister”. 

Up to the late 1940s, power came from Ardnacrusha, Pigeon House on the Liffey, and Alleywood or Portarlington. In the event of Ardnacrusha not operating for any reason, power had to be transmitted over long distance, which, experience had shown was an unsatisfactory arrangement. Before World War II, this possible difficulty was foreseen and plans were laid by the ESB for a Cork station. Owing to immediate post-war difficulties the preliminary work could not be undertaken until 1950, and the near completion of such a big undertaking in such as short space of time represented a ‘notable achievement’.

On 7 October 1954, the Irish Independent wrote about the Marina station near completion. Construction began in 1951. Operating from 1954, it fed electric power into the national network for use in homes, factories, streets, highways and farms throughout the south of Ireland. The station was the seventh power station to go into operation since the end of the war. For the preliminary development of the station two 30,000 kw steam turbo-generating sets were installed. These gave an annual estimated output of 240 million units per year. These turbines were the biggest in use in Ireland and were of the latest two-cylinder type and generated the electricity at 105kv. Transformers stepped up this figure to 110kv for easier transmission with minimum losses. A series of step-down transformers assisted in the ultimate delivery to the consumer at 220 volts. Steam was delivered to the two steam turbines at 850 F. The output from these sets was regulated from the station control room. Visual audible warning signs were given to the engineer in charge of the control room in the event of any fault developing in the plant. The station was linked to the central Load Despatch Office in Dublin.

The Marina Station occupied a commanding location on a 13 acre site facing Cork quays, its towering brick-fronted bulk was deemed as the Irish Independent noted as having a “pleasing architectural alignment with the extensive structures of adjacent industrial undertakings”. Surrounding it was Messrs Henry Ford and Son’s Motor assembly works, Dunlops Ltd rubber factory; and the mills, with their towering silos of the Cork Milling Co. Ltd and National Flour Mills Ltd. The selection of the Marina station site was influenced by its excellent access by road and the availability of deep-water wharfage for the unloading of coal and oil directly from ships.

There were many features of the new Marina station, which gave it a cutting technological status. It was the first of its kind to use both oil and coal for primary generation. The station’s fuel consumption was to be in the region of 120,000 tons of coal or 80,000 tons of oil. The reason that either coal or oil could be used to provide the necessary steam power was linked to cheaper operating costs. These fuels were competitive and the station was to operate on whichever was the cheaper at any given time.

The three huge boilers used in the station scored several notable ‘firsts’. They were the largest ever to be installed in Ireland and were of the very latest pattern; they were the first of their type to be used in Ireland for the generation of electricity. Capable of producing 600,000 lbs of steam per hour under normal operating conditions, they could rise to 660,000 lbs should the occasion demand.

In the event of coal being used it was unloaded at the wharf by a transporter crane capable of handing 120 tons an hour. This transporter delivered to bunkers beside the boilers or to the main coal yard, which could accommodate 60,000 tons of coal. A drag scaper distributed the coal around the yard and reloaded it on to the conveyors for transportation to the bunkers. Each boiler had a bunker capacity of 270 tons of coal which represented over a day’s storage –each boiler using about ten tons an hour. The coal from the bunkers fell onto weighers on the floor below and from there went to the ball-type mills which pulverised it. Hot air, blown through the mill, carried the pulverised coal away to the boilers where it ignited as it entered the furnace.

To be continued…

Captions:

725a. ESB Marina station, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)