Kilroot Coal Ship Unloader

This project from July 2010 was the complete removal of the Continuous Ship Unloader (CSU) from the jetty at Kilroot Power Station.

Kilroot Power Station is situated to the North of Carrickfergus, County Antrim. The main plant was constructed in the late 1970s as an oil fired facility. In the mid- 1980s it was converted to be dual fired, on coal and oil.

The coal for the station was delivered by sea to the jetty located on the north shore of Belfast Lough. The CSU was installed in 1988 and was used until 1997 to transfer coal from the vessel to the overland conveyor system. From 1997, coal has been delivered in self-discharging ships and the CSU remained stationary on the jetty for approximately 12 years until Tinnelly Group were engaged to complete its’ removal.

The CSU was manufactured in 1988 by ‘PWH Anlagen + Systeme’. The final assembly of the machine was carried out at Harland & Wolff works in Belfast and the machine was lifted into place from a barge which moored in the Coal Unloading Berth.

The coal was unloaded using a counterbalanced arm which supported a bucket chain reclaimer. Tinnelly Group engaged the specialist lifting services of McNally Crane Hire to assist with the dismantling works using their Liebherr LTM 1300 & Liebherr LTM 1130 cranes which show the scale of this project and the restricted working area on the jetty .

Following the end of coal generation in 2023, Kilroot Power Station has successfully generated electricity from gas. Until now coal has made up about 15% of the electricity generated in Northern Ireland. It is being phased out in order to decarbonise the electricity industry and meet new targets on Climate Change.

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