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1950s
Construction work started on the Merseyside Power Station (MPS) at Bromborough in September 1956. The site was chosen as it had a central position for supplying steam and electricity services, was close to the River Mersey for drainage, accessible by rail, and the ground was suitable for load-bearing. The station was initially expected to cost over £2 million and was designed by Port Sunlight engineering staff and external consultants. Port Sunlight design staff included Chief Engineer John Lancaster, Civil Engineer Eric Scott, Power Services Engineer John Fowler and Electrical Services Engineer Douglas Haigh.

The foundation stone was laid by Lord Heyworth, Chairman of Unilever Ltd, on 13 March 1957 and the first plant was commissioned in April 1958. The power station was officially opened by the 3rd Viscount Leverhulme on 17 December 1958, with the final cost standing at nearly £2.5 million. In his opening speech, Lord Leverhulme proudly announced that among the companies the plant would serve ‘were four giants – the largest margarine factory in the country, the largest soap factory, the largest hydrogenation plant and the largest producer of fatty acids in the country.’

Five weeks before the official opening the station went into full commission to supply steam and electricity to Unilever factories in Bromborough and Port Sunlight: Stork Margarine Works, The British Extracting Company; Prices (Bromborough) Limited; Unilever’s Bromborough Dock; and the factory of Lever Brothers Port Sunlight. Also supplied were the external companies of Brotherton & Company Limited; Fawcett Preston & Company Limited, Brookhirst Switchgear Limited and Lloyd & Cross Limited. Port Sunlight News declared there to be ‘something splendidly triumphant about the twin chimneys… The tall columns of reinforced concrete add an impressive new landmark to the local industrial scene.’

Design
The power station was designed to have a high level of thermal efficiency, both for steam and electricity, and it was expected it would hit a target of 78%. The site was expected to ‘save the nation a considerable quantity of coal, and with its twin 250-feet high chimneys will materially reduce atmospheric pollution.’ The boilerhouse contained four oil-fired boilers and four back pressure turbines, with the boilers burning over 100,000 tons of fuel a year to produce over a million tons of steam and 80,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

The building’s steel frame covered an area of 250 feet x 140 feet and included boiler and turbine rooms, a workshop, canteens, cloakrooms, oil service tanks, a water treatment plant, and a control room and switch room. The site also included an underground reservoir with a capacity of 1,000,000 gallons of water to supply the power plant. A six mile long pipeline was built to pump water from the West Cheshire Water Board’s plant in Great Sutton. A second pipeline pumped oil directly from the Shell station based at Queen Elizabeth Dock, Eastham.

1960s
In 1960 management of the site was transferred from Lever Brothers to Unilever Merseyside Ltd. This coincided with a greater demand from local business for electricity and steam. Consequently work began on a £1.25 million extension which was officially opened by Lord Leverhulme in September 1966. The extension included a new boiler; two back pressure turbo generators, a water treatment plant, a third 250 foot chimney and a 5,500 foot pipeline directly supplying steam to Price’s (Bromborough) Limited. The steel frame extension covered 13,000 square foot.

1970s
A second extension costing £2.6 million was added in 1976, which doubled the steam and electricity generating capacity of the original station. The new addition comprised a 104 tonne per hour high-pressure boiler and turbine generator. The extension was officially opened by Unilever’s Director of Engineering and Organisation Services, Mr. K.H Veldhuis, on 2 December 1976.

1980s
A £14 million investment was approved by Unilever in 1984 to improve efficiency by installing a new coal boiler and building a new engine generator. On 20 October 1986 UML opened the new part of the power station, which had been converted to coal burning. Coal was cheaper than oil, and when it was used in a combination heat and power station (as at UML), 75% energy could be extracted, as opposed to 35% as in standard facilities. The plant depended on 80,000 tonnes of coal per year which was specially sourced from a Yorkshire coal pit which supplied coal with low ash content. The coal was then further processed on site to ensure ‘very little ash escapes through the chimney into the atmosphere – pleasing local residents and ecologists’.

1990s
In 1990 Unilever Merseyside Limited became one of the first private sector companies to join the pooling and settlement agreement after the privatisation of the electricity industry. However, due to a decline in demand for steam and electricity and the high costs in meeting new environmental standards the closure of the power station was announced in 1997. The generation and distribution of steam ended on 13 December 1998, and by 1 January 1999 the MPS electricity distribution system had been incorporated into the MANWEB network. The power station was demolished in April 1999.