Staveley Power Grid - oldminer.co.uk

Prior to Nationalisation of the power industry and the formation of the National Grid electricity system which was completed in 1933, many local industrial companies generated their own electricity from their industrial workings usually by burning excess gas from coke production. Either Alternating or Direct Current. (A.C. or D.C.)

There were several local systems which were mostly incompatible with each other until the National Grid brought about conformity of the generation. The problem was usually linked to the frequency of the electricity generated. One side of a road may have had electricity generated as alternating current at 50 Cycles Per Second, the other at 30 C.P.S. Therefore electrical equipment from one side was not compatible with properties across the road.

Here is an article from the Staveley Company Magazine December 1927 issue.

Reprinted from ‘The Power Engineer’.