Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 January 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 69) – A Sphere of National Life”

“Built to the design and specifications prepared by the Electricity Supply Board’s own engineering staff, the Marina Station is one of the most up-to-date of its kind in Europe. This station is yet another link in the ESB plan to double the present output of electricity by 1961. The everyday demands for electricity in every sphere of our national life show such a tremendous increase that this programme is essential if electrical self sufficiency is to be maintained (Editorial, Irish Independent, 7 October 1954)”.

Following on from introducing the Marina ESB station last week, the local press wrote of the plant as one of the most up-to in terms of using modern scientific breakthroughs and technology. When oil as a fuel was used it was fed from the tanker on the adjacent quay through an oil pipe line to the 4,500 ton oil tanks located on the far side of Centre Park Road. A pump house beside these tanks pumped to the boilers as required. Heavy fuel oil was used as to make it free-flowing enough for pumping it to be steam heated. Hot air was blown through a rotary air heater; the oil was atomised by steam and injected into the boilers. The jet of oil was burned in suspension in the same way as the pulverised coal.

Cooling water for condensing the steam was drawn from the River lee, and was circulated by four pumps capable of handling 54,000 gallons of water a minute. It was essential that the tubes carrying the cooling water be maintained absolutely free and unclogged. As river water was being used, a special screening and chlorination plant was installed to remove impurities from the water before it entered the tubes. Water for the boilers was provided from the Cork City water supply, and a 21,000 gallon storage tank was used to maintain supply.

Care was taken to avoid the dissemination of undesirable material from the 220-ft high chimney which served the station. Incorporated in the system was a grit collector where the grit in the gases was removed. Ash particles which fell to the bottom of the boiler were collected and sluiced out daily to a piece of adjoining waste land. This waste land set aside for ash disposal took in an area of 18 acres, and if the station were to operate on coal all the time, it could have filled up in nine years. A special testing station was established on the hill at Montenotte across the River Lee to check the deposits before the station was in operation and to ensure that no damage was caused to residents in the area.

The blessing ceremony was performed by Bishop Lucey on 22 September 1955 and was recorded by the Cork Examiner the day after. Owing to the disposition of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, William Norton, the opening ceremony was performed by his Parliamentary Secretary P J Crotty, Mr Crotty opened the outer door of the main block with a gold key and later cut a tape in the turbine room to signify that the station was now well and truly in official commission. The scissors was presented to Mr Crotty by the youngest employee at the station, the 14-year-old messenger boy, Liam O’Sullivan. The Bishop, Mr Crotty and all the other guests were taken on a conducted tour of the station. The chairman of the ESB, Dr R F Browne, welcomed guests. They were shown the machinery for the pulverising of coal to be fed into the three boilers and the two big turbines.

Later at a luncheon in the Imperial Hotel, Dr Browne noted of a steady expansion of electricity grids in the city: “It has rendered necessary the building of a large generating station…A station was first placed in commission in Cork in 1897 [on Albert Road] and it gave good service over the years. The station opened today is some twelve times larger and has an installed capacity of 60MW and can be readily be extended to 120MW”. In thanking the many contractors to the scheme, the list of names echo the ESB’s focus on the use of cutting edge western European technology. The steam turbine alternator sets, switchgear and control room equipment came from Siemens Schukert of Germany. Babcok and Wilcox provided the boilers. Transformers and other switchgear came from ACEC Belgium and AEG Germany and from Brown Boveri Switzerland. The main civil works were carried out by McNally and Co. Ltd and by the Irish Piling Company.

Mr Browne further highlighted that to meet supply requirements, there were under construction in 1955, two large and four small peat stations, two hydro schemes and a large station in Dublin, similar to that in Cork. Native sources of power were being relied on and the focus was being placed on water and peat. With water, Mr Browne noted that the scope for further hydro development was limited as 70 per cent of the potential power in the country had been harnessed. The remaining 30 per cent was in very small rivers and streams, which to harness were not cost effective.

To be continued…

Caption:

726a. Aerial view of ESB Marina near completion, c.1954 (ESB Archives, Dublin)