The power station opened in 1929 by the Earl of Derby, was to become highly regarded within the industry due to its excellent record of thermal efficiency.

Due to increased power demands there were a further two extensions made to the site in 1936 and 1949, one of which was a new cooling tower reported at the time to be the tallest in the world.

[2] Originally 'A' Station had four cast iron chimneys but these were replaced by two brick built stacks, each 275 feet high.

When completed the adjoining boiler houses totalled 255 yards and the entire buildings and chimneys used several million bricks.

Each of the six boilers needed to run the turbines at full load consumed 5,500 gallons of oil per hour.

[9] This was not the first occasion that the station had burned such refuse, in 1962 tobacco offal, battery cases, bathroom fittings and oil saturated clay were burnt as fuel additives in an experiment to establish their calorific value.