The need to build a power plant arose in 1949. The plans for the facility were drawn up by Czechoslovak engineers in the framework of an interstate agreement concluded in the autumn of 1949. The power plant was planned to be built on the eastern outskirts of Várpalota as part of the first five-year plan, right next to the area designated for the Várpalota aluminum smelter. Construction of the power plant began in March 1950, and the power plant builder Inota Power Plant Company was founded on November 29, 1951. The Hungarian main contractors for the construction were the Hungarian Factory Construction Company and the 31st State Construction Trust. The indoor installation of the power plant equipment was carried out by the Czechoslovak partner companies. The facility began its trial operation on November 7, 1951, when it also received its official name: November 7. Thermal Power Plant. The facility started supplying electricity to the Hungarian electricity grid on December 6 of the same year. The facility continued to develop after the handover, with new boilers gradually being brought into production until 1954. The nominal capacity of the facility with its complete construction was 120 MW, it included seven steam boilers and six turbogenerators.

Cooling towers have an interesting feature that is sure to beat the hearts of the mathematicians who drive past them. The shape of the towers is a rotation hyperboloid, the special feature of which is that, despite its line surface, i.e. its curved shape, its surface is described by a grid of straight sections. Architects just wave with a smile, as it is precise because of this characteristic that they like this figure. This way, they do not have to use bent beams during construction, but in the end, they still get a smooth, curved surface.

The principle of the operation of the cooling towers was developed by the Kossuth Prize winner László Heller, the equipment was edited by László Forgó. With their system, they solved an important problem of power plants, water-saving. The essence of their invention was to condense and liquefy the vacuum steam by injecting cold water. The still-hot water was transferred to the small ribbed heat exchanger, cooled there, and became reusable as the process was repeated. They know and apply their system all over the world.

Between 1973 and 1975, a peak gas-turbine power plant was also built at the power plant, which was in operation during peak loads.  With the commissioning of the peak power plant, the nominal capacity of the Inota facility increased to 164 MW. The gradual renovation of the power plant’s boilers began in 1977, as they were completely worn out during their operation. By the 1980s, the facility was already a growing concern, releasing 120 tonnes of sulfur dioxide into the air in a single day of operation. Due to the tightening of environmental regulations, fly ash separators were installed until 1990. Reconstructions and demolitions of the power plant, which was strongly obsolete at that time, began so that the modernization of the site would later ensure the maintenance of production. On March 2, 1998, the Bakonyi Power Plant Company, which owned the power plant, was privatized by the Hungarian state, so the power plant also came into private hands. (Source: Wikipedia)

In 1999, Magyar Villamos Művek indicated that it did not intend to extend its contract with the power plant. After March 2000, the peak gas turbine power plant was no longer in operation.  By this time, the power plant was only a shadow of itself, its output shrinking to barely a tenth of the previous period. The coal-fired power plant was finally shut down on December 30, 2001, after lengthy preparations. In the following months, the equipment was dismantled and some of the buildings were demolished. The 105-meter-high chimney of the power plant was blown up in September 2011 due to an accident hazard. From 2012, the II. There is a landfill now.

Based on the lignite mined in Várpalota, the power and heat power plant were started up in Inota on November 7, 1951, and in 1973 it was developed into a peak gas turbine power plant. After the change of regime, it became increasingly clear – especially with the cessation of lignite mining in Várpalota – that the Inota power plant would no longer be needed in the long run, the CEO said. With the closure of the power plant, the jobs of nearly 200 workers will be lost, but the demolition of a 30-strong staff and the decommissioning of the power plant will provide jobs for several more months.

After fifty years of production, the thermal power plant in Inota was shut down permanently on the penultimate day of 2001, Frigyes Németh, CEO of Bakonyi Erőmű Rt., Announced on Wednesday. The shutdown of the power plant’s 200 employees was not unexpected: Magyar Villamos Művek had previously indicated that it did not need electricity from the Inota power plant, and a new municipal block heating plant was built in Várpalota three years ago.

• https://aquilaphoto.blog.hu/2018/06/24/egy_eromu_utolso_napjai
• https://index.hu/kultur/zene/2019/07/15/en_varosom_varpalota
• https://rtl.hu/rtlklub/21szazad/mi-tortenik-egy-rendszer-jelkepevel
• https://www.origo.hu/gazdasag/hirek/vallalatihirek/leallitottak
• https://filmhiradokonline.hu/watch.php?id=10865
• http://www.borsonline.hu/aktualis/csokipapir
• http://www.muemlekem.hu/muemlek/show/16534
• https://www.origo.hu/tudomany/20141020-hol-jarunk-feladvany.html?pIdx=1
• https://www.sztnh.gov.hu/hu/magyar-feltalalok-es-talalmanyaik

The construction happened between 1949 and 1954. These photos are from Fortepan and MTI photo archives.