Power generation began at the 350 acre site in 1961, when Atlantic City Energy Co. put four small diesel generators into service. Demand for electricity in the area was growing though, so construction began swiftly on a brand new coal powered unit which was brought online just a year later. The new coal burning unit was far more powerful than the old diesel generators, with a maximum output of 129 megawatts. By 1964 a second coal unit was completed, giving the station a 285MW potential.
Though the England station was among a dozen others in the state burning coal, it did so slightly differently. Most generating stations that came before B.L. England used pulverized coal in their boilers. The England station utilized "Cyclone Boilers", a Babcock & Wilcox invention in which larger chunks of solid fuel are dispersed in a circular fashion. This allowed the fuel to burn up just as efficiently, but with less preperation. It also allowed the England station to burn a small percentage of alternative fuel with coal, in this case scrap tires. One of the downsides of using these larger unrefined chunks of fuel was the amount of waste leftover. As much as 70,000 tons of slag material had to be carted off site every year. It was so cumbersome the plant had to be shut down bi-annually in order to clean out all the waste.
A decade later the facility was expanded once again. Another 165 megawatt oil burning unit brought the total potential of the plant up to 450mw. Unfortunately with each expansion came new problems. The generating process creates recondensed waste water, which is often scalding hot. The waste water was being discharged into the harbor without being cooled, causing a variety of ecological issues. To help remedy this, a massive concrete cooling tower was added to the site. The near-boiling waste water was pumped into the tower and air cooled before finally ending up in the harbor.
By 1987 the three original chimneys were chopped down and a new modern one was added. The new stack included scrubber equipment which allowed sulfur dioxide to be removed from the exhaust gas. Since the new chimney was going to stand out so much, the company decided to try and mimic the design of a lighthouse. I've never seen anything quite like it at the dozens of other generating stations I have visited. Unfortuneately the scrubbers weren't doing enough to keep the plant off the radar of the EPA. In 2006 the plant was cited for violating the clean air act. This meant they either needed to install expensive pollution mitigation systems, or close. Atlantic City Energy decided instead to sell the plant to the BL Holdings company for just over 12 million dollars.
By 2013 Unit 1 was brought offline, and BL Holdings planned to convert the other two units to natural gas. They asked the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for permission to build a new pipeline to accomidate the conversion, much to the chagrin of locals. The group initially approved the plan, which would have seen a pipeline going through the Pinelands. However, public utilities are banned from the Pinelands, which is a federally protected national reserve. After some back and forth the pipeline was initially approved by the Pinelands Commision. The locals weren't having it though. The Pinelands Preservation Alliance appealed the ruling, and shortly afterwards the New Jersey Sierra Club and Environment New Jersey filed a lawsuit against the Pinelands Commision. The appellate court ruled against the commission, and found that their president didnt have the authority to approve the pipeline. The Commision voted again a year later, this time in favor with a 9 - 5 split. The NJ Sierra Club and Environment NJ were quick to appeal the ruling. The plant was already scheduled to be shut down for the conversion, but instead it continued to burn coal until 2019. By then the owners of the plant had enough of the legal trouble. Non renewable power generation had become extremely unpopular in New Jersey, and pipelines themselves had become a national hot button issue. On May 1st 2019 the plant officially went offline.
It was a calm morning as we arrived in the quiet town of Beesley's Point to document the power plant. The warm air was filled with the nostaglic and unmistakable smell of the Jersey Shore. We walked along the old rail spur which once brought coal to the facility, now overgrown and rusted.
It wasn't long before we were at the base of the massive structure, searching for a staircase. We spent about an hour exploring the building as folks began to wake up. Boats filled the harbor and fisherman were casting reels, it was time for us to leave before someone noticed us and called the police. As we departed it was clear to us there was never going to be another use for this old outdated generating station. Unspurisingly, demolition was announced shortly after our visit. The first major step towards demolition was remediating all the hazardous materials from the plant. In 2022 the first real visible act of demolition took place when the iconic cooling tower was imploded. Over the course of the next year the generating equipment and valuable materials were removed, and on April 21st 2023 the boilers were imploded. It was both impressive and disgusting watching the old steel structure disappear into a cloud of smoke and coal dust. In some ways it was a fitting end for a monument to the most dirty and destructive form of power generation on this planet.
At the time of publishing, only the iconic chimney and a few ancillary structures remain on the site. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the property. I still haven't been over the Great Egg Harbor Bridge since the demolition, but I'm sure the next time I do it will be strange not seeing B.L. England for the first time in my life.
