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Power Stations

North Dock Power Station

1910 a company was set up to construct a new power station and an electric tramway system estimated to cost about £68,000. The North Dock Power Station was commissioned and built in 1910. Originally it was coal fired but later, when it was converted, it became the only oil-fired power station in Wales and it had a capacity of 25 MW.

1972 The demolition of the North Dock Power Station, which had been delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War, was finally accomplished in 1972.

Carmarthen Bay Power Station

1946 The Llanelly and District Electric Supply Company announced that plans were in the pipeline to replace their existing generating station at North Dock. The new power station for Burry Port would cost around £12,000,000 and the work on a detailed survey and trial borings would begin early in 1947. The project was to be built in sections and when completed was expected to have a capacity of 300,000 kilowatts which was more than ten times the capacity of the North Dock Power Station. The first section was expected to cost around £5,000,000 and would be ready for commercial operation by the end of 1950.

1947 The War years had caused many projects to be cancelled or put ‘on hold’ and to make up for lost time building work was ‘fast tracked’ – so much so – that in April 1947 a ceremony to mark the beginning of the project on the 220 acre site was planned. A copperworks had stood on part of the site and it was proposed to demolish the 250 ft stack just before the speeches were made by the dignitaries.

A photographer was commissioned to take photographs for the Evening Post and he decided to take a look around the stack the day before the proposed demolition. Contractors had been busy working around the base of the stack in readiness for a detonator to be placed during the ceremony. Nature took hold of events as a strong south westerly wind began to blow over the Bay on the afternoon before the ceremony. The photographer looked at the stack from outside the site agent’s hut and noticed the top of the chimney was wobbling. Before he could finish his sentence warning the men of the impending disaster the stack disintegrated and crashed to the ground. A thick cloud of dust enveloped the hut and most of the site and the officials had to hastily rethink their plans.

Instead of a dramatic demolition Frederick J Morgan of the local Council was given a spade and invited to cut the first sod.

1954 In August 1954 the Carmarthen Bay opening ceremony was held amid much jubilation and celebration before a gathering of dignitaries and industrialists.

1980s In the 1980s a special boat was brought in to de-silt Burry Port Harbour. The accumulated silt was pumped into huge pipes which deposited the silt on to Carmarthen Bay Ash Ponds.

1981 The grounds of Carmarthen Bay Power Station were chosen as an experimental site for windmill power. A £1,000,000 state-owned medium-sized electricity generating windmill was built on the ash ponds which was an area of land between the main road and the estuary leaving Pwll and just before Burry Port.

1983 The Llanelli Star reported that the Carmarthen Bay Power Station was to be sold off to private industry. Conservative Party legislation had given private firms the right to run power stations, with access to the National Grid. Taylor Woodrow Limited, a London based international firm had been negotiating with a closed power station in the West Country and was said to be a potential customer.

1984 In less than a year (in August 1984, the 30th anniversary) the fight for the Carmarthen Bay Power Station was lost and it was said to be unusable until the Central Electricity Generating Board removed large quantities of asbestos in the building fabric. It was estimated that it would take at least two years from the final closure because it had not been revealed just how much asbestos was used in the station’s construction.