engineering

Portobello Power Station

Portobello Power Station is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Portobello Power Station rather than just read about it. In short: Portobello Power Station was a coal-fired power station in Portobello, Edinburgh which was built in 1923 by the Edinburgh Corporation in order to cope with the increasing demand for electricity in the city. History Although originally intended to be built in 1913, its construction was delayed because of the First World War, and it was formally opened by King George V 10 years later in July 1923.

Key takeaways

Portobello Power Station belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Portobello Power Station to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Portobello Power Station from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

History Although originally intended to be built in 1913, its construction was delayed because of the First World War, and it was formally opened by King George V 10 years later in July 1923. Its electricity was used to power Edinburgh and the surrounding region while waste heat warmed the water of Portobello Open Air Pool. At that time the turbine room contained three 12,500 kW turbines fed by six tri-drum water-tube boilers with integral superheaters and superposed economisers, each designed for a maximum continuous capacity of 80,000 lb. of steam per hour. In 1925 the plant was supplemented by a further 12,500 kW turbine. In 1927 two Brown Boveri 31,250 MW turbines were added. These were accommodated in extensions to the 1923 building and also include eight more boilers. In 1938 the design of the station was extended by Edinburgh architect Ebenezer James MacRae; its six individual chimneys were replaced with a single 365 feet tall stack, which weighed 10,000 tons, was made up of 710,000 bricks and cost in the region of £118,000 to build. Between 1952 and 1955, the power station achieved the highest thermal efficiency of any station in the UK, with peak output of around 279 megawatts, although an explosion in February 1953 led to a two-hour power blackout across Edinburgh. The explosion, which could be heard a mile away, was caused by sea spray collecting on high-voltage insulators in the main-grid substation. The power station closed on 31 March 1977 and demolished in 1980; a new housing estate was built on the site. During demolition, the chimney had to be taken down brick by brick because of its proximity to nearby houses. The Portobello coat-of-arms on the power station was rescued during demolition and it was planned to incorporate it into a new sports centre to be built in the area. This never happened and in 2016 the broken coat of arms was located in a City of Edinburgh Council storage facility in the west of Edinburgh.

References

External links Edinburgh, Portobello High Street, Electricity Generating Station at Canmore.org.uk

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Portobello Power Station

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Portobello Power Station claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Portobello Power Station before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Portobello Power Station ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Portobello Power Station

In research: Portobello Power Station appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Portobello Power Station in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Portobello Power Station is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1923 establishments in Scotland, 1977 disestablishments in Scotland, Buildings and structures completed in 1923, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Portobello Power Station outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Portobello Power Station” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Portobello Power Station in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Portobello Power Station means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Portobello Power Station out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Portobello Power Station in simple terms?

Portobello Power Station was a coal-fired power station in Portobello, Edinburgh which was built in 1923 by the Edinburgh Corporation in order to cope with the increasing demand for electricity in the city. History Although originally intended to be built in 1913, its construction was delayed becau…

Why does Portobello Power Station matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Portobello Power Station?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Portobello Power Station.