The North Eastern Electric Supply Company (commonly abbreviated to NESCo) was responsible for the supply of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

to a large amount of

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

, prior to the

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of the British electricity industry with the

Electricity Act 1947 The Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54.) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which nationalised, or bought into state control, the electricity supply industry in Great Britain. It established a central authority called t ...

. The company was established as the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company (also abbreviated to NESCo) in 1889, but was renamed the North Eastern Electricity Supply company as it expanded to supply the North East region.

History

The Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company was founded in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, in 1889 by the industrialist

John Theodore Merz John Theodore Merz (30 March 1840 – 21 March 1922) was a German British chemist, historian and industrialist. Merz was born in Manchester, England and educated at University of Giessen, Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Bonn universities. Merz wa ...

. The company was one of two that were founded in the Newcastle area that year, with the

Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company The Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company (abbreviated to DISCo) was a pre-nationalisation, private electricity supply company, based in Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England. The company was set up in 1889 by Charles Algernon Pa ...

(DisCo) founded by

Charles Algernon Parsons Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the compound steam turbine, and as the eponym of C. A. Parsons and Company. He worked as an engineer on d ...

. A line was roughly drawn down the city's Grainger Street, with NESCo supplying the area to the east and DisCo that to the west. NESCo opened its first power station, Pandon Dene, in 1890. Merz's son, Charles Hesterman Merz worked at the Pandon Dene station and became the company's Chief Consultant Engineer. Charles Merz's design company,

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 establishe ...

, which he founded with William McLellan, undertook much of NESCo's design work from 1898 onward. They designed the pioneering

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 provid ...

, which opened in 1901. It was the first power station in the United Kingdom to generate

three-phase electric power Three-phase electric power (abbreviated 3φ) is a common type of alternating current used in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system employing three wires (or four including an optional neutral ...

, and the first to supply electricity for industrial purposes rather than just lighting. This led to the rapid expansion of NESCo, and gave the Tyneside industries an advantage over those in other areas. For the 30 years following the opening of the Neptune Bank station, NESCo became one of the World's leading companies in power station development. NESCo opened

Carville Power Station Carville Power Station refers to a pair of now partially demolished coal-fired power stations, situated in North East England on the north bank of the River Tyne at Wallsend. The two stations were built alongside each other on a riverside sit ...

in 1903 to supply power for the

Tyneside Electrics The Tyneside Electrics were the suburban railways on Tyneside that the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway electrified using the third rail system. The North Tyneside Loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed o ...

. In 1905 NESCo expanded its territory by taking over the Walker and Wallsend Union Gas Company. After a series of parliamentary battles with DisCo, NESCo extended its supply and distribution area south of the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

, and it opened

Dunston Power Station :''Sometimes confused with the nearby Stella power stations.'' Dunston Power Station refers to a pair of adjacent coal-fired power stations in the North East of England, now demolished. They were built on the south bank of the River Tyne, in ...

in this new territory in 1910. By 1914 NESCo had expanded this area further by absorbing the County of Durham Electrical Power Distribution Company, the County of Durham Power Supply Company and the Houghton-le-Spring and District Electric Lighting Company. Carville B Power Station opened in 1916, the most economical power station in the World at the time. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it took over the Cleveland and Durham Electric Power Company, the Northern Counties Electricity Supply Company, Durham County Electric Power Company, and Tees Power Station Company. It also took over the assets of the Durham Collieries Electric Power Company and the Hexham & District Supply Company following their liquidations. NESCo opened

North Tees Power Station North Tees Power Station refers to a series of three coal-fired power stations on the River Tees at Billingham in County Durham. Overall, they operated from 1921 until 1983, and the C station, the last on the site, was demolished in 1987. Bil ...

in 1921 and Dunston B Power Station in 1933.

In 1927, the company moved into their new headquarters at Carliol House in Newcastle's city centre. The building was designed by

Robert Burns Dick Robert Burns Dick (1868–1954) was a British architect, city planner and artist. Mainly working in the Newcastle upon Tyne area, he designed municipal buildings, churches and over one hundred houses and housing schemes in the North East of Engl ...

. Carliol House Ltd. had been founded in 1924 to build and administer the building itself. It remained a separate company until 1974, after the nationalisation of the company. The North Eastern Electric Supply Company was formed under the North Eastern Electric Supply Act 1932, which brought the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company and all its subsidiaries under one company. In June 1932 it bought the Durham Electrical Power Distribution Company. The British electricity industry was nationalised in 1948 under the

. The industry was reorganised by region and the British Electricity Authority (NESCo) was set up for the North East region and was based upon the area covered by NESCo, but also included the areas covered by DisCo, the Askrigg and Reeth Supply Company and the Hawes Electric Lighting Company. The area covered stretched from

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

to the Scottish border. British Electricity Authority (NESCo) was later renamed the

North Eastern Electricity Board North Eastern Electricity Board was an electricity distribution utility in England, serving the North East of England. History Formed as the North Eastern Electricity Board (NEEB) in 1948 as part of the nationalisation of the electricity indust ...

History

References

Further reading