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Cockenzie Power Station

Cockenzie power station is a coal-fired power station sited in the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton on the shores of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian, on the east coast of Scotland; 8 miles from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The facility dominates the coastline with its distinctive twin chimneys and in common with all other power stations in Scotland it lacks cooling towers; instead using sea water as a coolant.

Under a design by the firm of celebrated architect Sir Robert Matthew, construction of Cockenzie began in 1959 on the site of the former Preston Links Colliery and operations began in 1967 for the then South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB). The facility itself consists of four 300 MW units for a peak supply of 1200 MW. In 2000-2001, Cockenzie generated a record load factor, supplying 3,563 GWh of electricity and burning 1,500,000 tonnes of coal. Much of the electrical equipment for the station was manufactured by Bruce Peebles & Co., Edinburgh.

Coal fuel was originally supplied by rail directly from the deep mines of the neighbouring Lothian coalfield, but these have since been exhausted or abandoned. Subsequently coal has been conveyed by rail from open cast mines in the Lothians, Fife, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire. Ash remaining after combustion is sold to the chemicals industry with any remaining being mixed with water and piped to large lagoons in the nearby town of Musselburgh, where it is used in land reclamation and the creation of a nature reserve.

This facility is now owned by the privatised Scottish Power utility group and it is run as a 'marginal station', guaranteeing seasonal and peak supply and non-availability of other facilities. For this reason considerable investment has been made to improve start-up times to maximise generating opportunities in the deregulated electricity generation market.