Little Barford Power Station

Little Barford Power Station February 2010

Little Barford Power Station can be seen for miles around and is probably the only thing which most people associate with the parish. Plans exist for carrying electricity to London from a power station in Great Paxton [Huntingdonshire] dated 1906 [PDE7/1/1-3]. The cable was to run through Little Barford.

A coal fired power station was first built at Little Barford in the 1940s, for which Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has the plans approved in 1939 [X481/62 and RDBP3/130]. The plant lay next to the East Coast Main Line which was convenient for trains bringing coal to the plant. This station was closed in 1981 and demolished.

North elevation of the administration block [RDBP3/130]

In 1994 a gas fired power station was built on the site, the building being completed two years later. It was built by National Power which, in 2001 divided into two companies, Innogy and International Power. Innogy was responsible for domestic power production and, like most British utilities was promptly bought by a foreign company, in this case the German firm RWE in 2002 who, thus, are Little Barford Power Station’s ultimate owners.

The current plant runs twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and employs around fifty staff. The plant creates power using combined cycle gas turbines to create energy with reduced pollution, the company claiming that it produces 30% more energy than a coal fired station from an equivalent amount of fuel.

Little Barford Power Station in February2010