The station was designed by the CEGB Southern Projects Group, and the principal consulting engineers were L.G.

It comprised a long east–west rectangular boiler house and a lower and longer turbine hall to the south.

Data logging equipment was the first to be installed in the UK and provided a continuous scan of plant conditions.

[2] The electrical output of each unit, and therefore the station, was co-ordinated by a single load dispatch office who were in contact with grid control at East Grinstead.

At full load each boiler consumed 50 tonnes of coal per hour, which was delivered by ship, first to a coal yard then to bunkers that fed cylindrical ball mills to create pulverised fuel, which was then blown into the boiler furnace.