Pandon Dene Power Station was an early

coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...

situated on the Pandon Dene, to the east of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

History

At the outset of their operations in 1889, the

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company The North Eastern Electric Supply Company (commonly abbreviated to NESCo) was responsible for the supply of electricity to a large amount of North East England, prior to the nationalisation of the British electricity industry with the Electricit ...

(NESCo) were confined to operating within the eastern half of Newcastle. Their initial objective was to supply electricity for "4,500 ten candle-power lamps, of which 3,000 could be alight at one time." NESCo's first major step toward achieving this goal was the erection of their first power station, at Pandon Dene in the city's east end. The station was opened in 1890.

Charles Merz Charles Hesterman Merz (5 October 1874 – 14 or 15 October 1940) was a British electrical engineer who pioneered the use of high-voltage three-phase AC power distribution in the United Kingdom, building a system in the North East of England i ...

worked at the station in 1892, prior to becoming a founder of his own electrical engineering consultancy

Merz & McLellan Merz and McLellan was a leading British electrical engineering consultancy based in Newcastle. History The firm was founded by Charles Merz and William McLellan in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902 when McLellan joined Merz's existing firm establis ...

Design and specification

Upon opening, the station generated electricity using two 75

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (kW) Mordey

alternator An alternator (or synchronous generator) is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field wit ...

s, each driven by a conventional Robey

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

, meaning the alternators operated at a slow speed. This gave the station an initial generating capacity of 150 kW. The Mordey generators could not operate in parallel and so each time load was transferred from one machine to another, supply would be interrupted and customers would notice a distinct flicker in the lights. The station burned 2,700 tonnes of coal per year, all of which was delivered by horse and cart. The electricity generated was supplied almost entirely for lighting purposes, and was generated at a pressure of 2,000

Volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...

s, and distributed using house-to-house

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

s which reduced the pressure to 100 Volts. Later in the station's history, further generators were installed, the largest of which had a capacity of 500 kW.

Closure

The station closed in 1902, following the opening of

Neptune Bank Power Station Neptune Bank Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated on the River Tyne at Wallsend near Newcastle upon Tyne. Commissioned in 1901 by the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company, the station was the first in the world to prov ...

Wallsend Wallsend () is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of ...

, and was subsequently converted into a sub-station with motor-generators. The sub-station used four 800 kW

rotary converter A rotary converter is a type of electrical machine which acts as a mechanical rectifier, Power inverter, inverter or frequency converter. Rotary converters were used to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), or DC to AC power, ...

s. It was one of five sub-stations which provided electricity for the North Eastern Railway's Riverside Branch.

References

{{North East Power Stations Power stations in North East England Buildings and structures in Newcastle upon Tyne