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| Rhode power station is
situated beside the village of Rhode. It
stopped producing electricity in 2002. It is 7 miles
from Edenderry, 18 miles from Tullmore, 16
miles from Mullingar and 2 miles from
Croghan. It was constructed for the Peat
Development Programme. It made use of 13,000
acres of local bog in North
Offaly. The station was completed in two
separate developments. Station A in 1960
and station B in 1963. Station A
had two 20,000 KW(kilowatts) boiler turbine
units and station B had one 40,000
KW. The station is on a site of
70 acres and had a permanent staff
of 100. Electricity was generated at 10,500
volts. Two 110 kw lines transmitted
the power to Maynooth and a 38
kv line brought the electricity to
Tullamore. There is no large natural water supply near the Station to cool the turbines. Water from the Yellow River was pumped to two cooling towers which were built to re - cycle water and change it from steam back to water again. Sixty thousand gallons of water passed through the towers each minute. The water was treated at a water treatment plant for use in the boilers. Milled peat from local bogs was brought to the Generating Station by trains called locos. Each wagon contains 5 tonnes of peat. They were unloaded automatically at the Tippler. The peat was carried by conveyor belt to big bunkers at the rate of 2000 tonnes a day. The peat was burned in huge furnaces which heated water. The water turned to steam which turned the turbines which generated the electricity. Over 550,000 tonnes of peat is used each year. by Catherina Hannon |
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