In 1917, the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company (NESCo) took control of the principal electrical undertakings for a large area in south County Durham and North Yorkshire.

[3] The Babcock & Wilcox boilers which were used to provide the steam to the turbines in the station, were famous in engineering circles at the time.

In 1918 the boilers became the first in the world to use steam at up to 450 psi, and pioneered the practice of reheating it during expansion in the turbine plant.

Following closure, Metropolitan-Vickers took the rotors from the stations and tested them to destruction, to find out why the older machines were more efficient than the new ones.

The station generated electricity using two Parsons and one Metropolitan-Vickers turbines, each driving two alternators in tandem.

[12] The C station had four Parsons 60,000 kilowatt (kW) turbo-alternators with steam raised in seven Babcock and Wilcock boilers fed via a steam range, giving it a total generating capacity of 240 MW.

[1] The boilers had an output capacity of 2,520,000 pounds per hour (317.5 kg/s) of steam at 900 psi (62.1 bar) and 496 °C.