Blackburn power stations

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Blackburn power stations: a short history

Blackburn in Lancashire has had several electricity plants since 1895, serving the town and surrounding area.

Jubilee Street power station (opened 1895)
The first plant in Jubilee Street began operating in 1895 to light Blackburn. It started small but grew as demand rose, eventually adding multiple generators powered by coal-fired boilers. A tall chimney and cooling arrangements served the site, and it provided power for lamps and public lighting as the town’s electrical needs expanded.

Blackburn East / Whitebirk power station (opened 1921; closed 1976)
A larger station was built at Whitebirk, about three miles north-east of Blackburn, and opened in 1921. It initially had two 10 MW units and was expanded over the years, reaching a capacity of about 143 MW by the mid-1950s. Coal was delivered by canal and rail, and cooling used ponds and towers. When the national electricity system was reorganised in 1948, ownership moved to national authorities, while Blackburn’s local electricity duties were transferred to NORWEB.

Whitebirk was closed in 1976, and its cooling towers were demolished in 1982. The site was later redeveloped as Hyndburn Retail Park.

Blackburn Mill power station (opened 2002; ongoing)
A new 60 MW plant, known as Blackburn Mill, began in 2002 near Feniscowes. It started as a combined heat and power plant for the nearby Sappi paper mill, using a gas turbine and a steam turbine to generate electricity and supply useful steam to the mill. After Sappi closed in 2008, Blackburn Mill continued as a gas-fired generator. It changed ownership in 2019 (Drax) and then in 2021 (Vitol, VPI Holdings Ltd).

Energy from waste plan for Darwen (approved 2019)
In 2019 the council approved plans for an energy-from-waste plant in Darwen (Lower Eccleshill Road). If built, it would process up to about 500,000 tonnes of waste each year and could export up to around 44 MW of electricity to the grid. Construction was slated to start in 2021, with potential operation in a few years.

In summary, Blackburn’s power stations have evolved from the early Jubilee Street plant to the Whitebirk site, then to modern gas-fired generation at Blackburn Mill, with plans for an energy-from-waste facility in nearby Darwen.