Cockenzie Power Station, a brief history.
Cockenzie Power Station was situated near the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, Scotland. This heroic modernist structure, which began generating electricity by burning finely ground coal in 1968, was designed in 1959 on the site of the former Preston Links Colliery by RMJM. Although Sir Robert Matthew’s firm was probably more well known for London’s Royal Festival Hall, the power station is no less a fine example of modernism.
The power station occupied a 24 hectare site and generated electricity using four identical 300 megawatt (MW) generating units, for a peak supply of 1200 MW. In 2000-01, Cockenzie generated a record load factor, supplying 3,563 GWh of electricity and burning 1,500,000 tonnes of coal in the process.