Condenser

A condenser shell at White Bay Power Station sits beneath one of the turbine pedestals in the turbine hall basement, the heavy cylindrical pressure vessel that condensed exhaust steam from the turbine back to water for return through the feedwater system. The shell is steel, painted in the pale industrial green of the plant, riveted at the longitudinal seams. The water-box covers at each end of the shell are removed in places, exposing the tube banks inside where harbour water once ran. The connecting steam piping from the turbine above enters the top of the shell through a heavy expansion joint. The condensate discharge runs out the bottom to the hotwell beneath.

Condensers were essential plant in a thermal power station: each turbine had its own condenser below it, with cooling water from the harbour running through the tube banks and exhaust steam condensing on the outside. The condensate then went forward through the feedwater train back to the boilers. White Bay ran condensers under each of its three Parsons units across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Day 1983. After closure the condensers were drained. Most of the condenser shells remained in place; the tubes were removed in some units during the 1990s decontamination program.