[HAVING spent my first three years of life…]
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-11-18Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 13 →
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HAVING spent my first three years of life in Batter-. sea, one of my earliest impressions of the world around me was of the giant 'upturned table' of Battersea Power Station.
So it was with a certain "adness that I heard of its impending closure, after a long period of rundown. Happily, it has been listed' for preservation, so the Central Electricity Generating Board won't be able to replace this "flaming altar of the modern temple of power" (Daily Herald, 1933) with another South Bank office block!
Battersea joins a long line of London power stations to be closed - seven since 1978, with two more to go by 1983, as well as three which have been 'mothballed' without ever being used:
They are being replaced by more efficient coalfired power stations in the East Midlands, giant oilfired power stations at Littlebrook and the Isle of Grain, and nuclear plants in Suffolk (Sizewell), Essex and Kent.
The history of CEGB policy is a rather sorry one. Many post-war power stations were obsolete before they were built. Their heat efficiencies* were about 27%, instead of the 35% attainable at the time. In other words, their electricity cost about 30% more than it needed to.
The situation now is no better, and possibly worse. The modern oilfired stations cost a vast sum of money and, though they are much more efficient, the cost of the oi they burn has rocketed, something the CEGB ignored - to our cost.
Mounting problems with nuclear power plants also mean •more expensive electricity.
so, is the answer to return to coal? One problem т s. Av
Scan page 14
Socialist Organiser no. 109 November 18 1982 Page 14