Newcastle Electric Supply Company
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| Private | |
| Industry | Electricity supply |
| Fate | Nationalised |
| Successor | North Eastern Electricity Board |
| Founded | Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (1889) as the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company |
| Founder | John Theodore Merz |
| Defunct | 1 April 1948 |
| Headquarters | Newcastle upon Tyne |
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Number of locations
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Various power stations |
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Area served
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North East England |
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Key people
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John Theodore Merz, Managing director |
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 Electricity Act 1947. 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.
The Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company was founded in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, in 1889 by the industrialist John Theodore Merz. The company was one of two that were founded in the Newcastle area that year, with the Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company (DisCo) founded by Charles Algernon Parsons. 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, which he founded with William McLellan, underook much of NESCo's design work from 1898 onward. They designed the pioneering Neptune Bank Power Station, which opened in 1901. It was the first power station in the United Kingdom to generate three-phase electric power, 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.
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Wikipedia