In early 1871 Belgian inventor Zénobe Gramme invented a generator
powerful enough to produce power on a commercial scale for industry. [1]
In 1878, a hydroelectric power station was designed and built by William,
Lord Armstrong at Cragside, England. It used water from lakes on his estate
to power Siemens dynamos. The electricity supplied power to lights, heating,
produced hot water, ran an elevator as well as labor-saving devices and farm
buildings.[2]
In January 1882 the world's first public coal-fired power station, the Edison
Electric Light Station, was built in London, a project of Thomas
Edison organized by Edward Johnson. A Babcock & Wilcox boiler powered a
93 kW (125 horsepower) steam engine that drove a 27-tonne (27-long-ton)
generator. This supplied electricity to premises in the area that could be
reached through the culverts of the viaduct without digging up the road,
which was the monopoly of the gas companies. The customers included
the City Temple and the Old Bailey. Another important customer was the
Telegraph Office of the General Post Office, but this could not be reached
through the culverts. Johnson arranged for the supply cable to be run
overhead, via Holborn Tavern and Newgate.[3]
Dynamos and engine installed at Edison General
Electric Company, New York 1895
In September 1882 in New York, the Pearl Street Station was established by
Edison to provide electric lighting in the lower Manhattan Island area. The
station ran until destroyed by fire in 1890. The station used
reciprocating steam engines to turn direct-current generators. Because of the
DC distribution, the service area was small, limited by voltage drop in the
feeders. In 1886 George Westinghouse began building an alternating current
system that used a transformer to step up voltage for long-distance
transmission and then stepped it back down for indoor lighting, a more
efficient and less expensive system which is similar to modern systems.
The war of the currents eventually resolved in favor of AC distribution and
utilization, although some DC systems persisted to the end of the 20th
century. DC systems with a service radius of a mile (kilometer) or so were
necessarily smaller, less efficient of fuel consumption, and more labor-
intensive to operate than much larger central AC generating stations.
The generator room of the Krka hydroelectric
plant (1895), with one of the first polyphase AC distribution systems in the
world[4]
AC systems used a wide range of frequencies depending on the type of load;
lighting load using higher frequencies, and traction systems and heavy motor
load systems preferring lower frequencies. The economics of central station
generation improved greatly when unified light and power systems,
operating at a common frequency, were developed. The same generating
plant that fed large industrial loads during the day, could feed commuter
railway systems during rush hour and then serve lighting load in the evening,
thus improving the system load factor and reducing the cost of electrical
energy overall. Many exceptions existed, generating stations were dedicated
to power or light by the choice of frequency, and rotating frequency
changers and rotating converters were particularly common to feed electric
railway systems from the general lighting and power network.
Throughout the first few decades of the 20th century central stations
became larger, using higher steam pressures to provide greater efficiency,
and relying on interconnections of multiple generating stations to improve
reliability and cost. High-voltage AC transmission allowed hydroelectric
power to be conveniently moved from distant waterfalls to city markets. The
advent of the steam turbine in central station service, around 1906, allowed
great expansion of generating capacity. Generators were no longer limited by
the power transmission of belts or the relatively slow speed of reciprocating
engines, and could grow to enormous sizes. For example, Sebastian Ziani de
Ferranti planned what would have reciprocating steam engine ever built for a
proposed new central station, but scrapped the plans when turbines became
available in the necessary size. Building power systems out of central
stations required combinations of engineering skill and financial acumen in
equal measure. Pioneers of central station generation include George
Westinghouse and Samuel Insull in the United States, Ferranti and Charles
Hesterman Merz in UK, and many others[5].[citation needed]
Modular
block overview of many types of power stations. Dashed lines show special
additions like combined cycle and cogeneration or optional storage.
