The History of the Power Station

Source: 'The Power Station 1929-1999' by Kerri-Anne Ross

The first electricity supplied to Stanley was on September 1, 1929, a mere 10 kilowatt (kw) supplied by a Petters diesel one cylinder generator to the Town Hall, Police Station, Police Cottages, Government House and the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.  In the first month heavy loads were reported in the log book by Tom Hennah and his assistant engineman John Blyth particularly due to a visit of HMS Dragon.  The generator was running at 80% capacity.  75 years on the power station uses less than 50% of the available output.

The Power Station has a reputation for employees staying with the department for many years.  John Blyth was just sixteen when he helped set up the first power supply and remained with the departments until his retirement from his post Assistant Superintendent in 1972.  Even then he returned as a stand-by Watchkeeper until 1982 spending a total of 53 years at the Power Station. 

During that period he witnessed many changes.  The first power station was a simple shed close to the beach in front of the old Town Hall.  Normal running hours were from 4.30pm until midnight unless there was a dance on in the Town Hall in which case whoever was running the dance would give the Power Station one pound to cover the extra running costs.  The generator would also be started on occasion in the morning to run the hospital x-ray machine.  There were no electricity meters.  The population were charged one pound per lamp per year, which was considered quite expensive, so most homes only had lights in the most used rooms.

The electricity supply was extended for all of Stanley for the Centenary year of 1933 with output having been increased with the introduction of a Gardener four cylinder diesel and two three cylinder Petter diesel engines.  Problems were reported with the exhaust system which kept catching fire and a lack of proper electricity cable.  An attempt to make do with telephone cable resulted in the Government House cow receiving an electric shock, not fatal but enough to make it bellow.

During the early part of the second world war the power supply was increased to 24 hours, a necessity with the regulation blackouts.  The army located two further generators next to the power station which was now operating from a site opposite the police station.  The power station remained at this site until January 1951 when a new station was built at Magazine Valley, the present site.  (The site opposite the police station was subsequently occupied by the Telephone Exchange Building, and then until 2003 by the EOD office.)

The new building was brought on line and commissioned by Ted Gutteridge who had taken over as Superintendent in 1951 and remained in the position until 1973.  The maximum capacity of this new station was 600 kw.  In 1961 two Mirlees six cylinder sets were purchased from the Ajax Bay freezer plant at San Carlos increasing the maximum capacity to 850 kw.  On May 19, 1973 part of the present power station was officially opened by Governor Gordon Lewis.  The station was now under the command of Superintendent Ted Carey who remained in the position until October 1982.

During the Argentine occupation of 1982 Stanley suffered a lot of damage from shelling in the final days and so did the electrical system.  Ted Carey was on watch when a cluster bomb exploded next to the Power Station killing three Argentine soldiers trying to keep warm by the generator's radiators.  It took the electrical staff only two weeks to restore power to the whole of Stanley.  Staff worked long into the night making thousands of joins in overhead cables.  They quickly ran out of the proper connectors and had to splice lines together - every piece of wire no matter how short was used.  Following the Argentine surrender the Royal Engineers ran a mobile power station behind the West Store to help with the huge increase in electrical load.

Les Harris became the fourth Superintendent in October 1982 and in February 1983 a new generator was installed increasing the total capacity to 1616 kw.  There was much work needed on the Stanley system and in 1985 Northern Electrical Industries came to the Islands and installed new cables replacing most of the war damaged system.  In 1985 the Civil Commissioner, Rex Hunt opened the new extension to the Power Station which included two new 1000 kw sets and room for two more.  The capacity was now 3616 kw.  In 1990 the capacity was increased to the present day 6600 kw.

The current staff of 21 have 195 working years at the Power Station accumulated between them.  Glenn Ross has been with the department for 25 years.  He started his apprenticeship in 1979 and went on to study Electrical Engineering and Applied Science at Southampton University, becoming Superintendent upon Les Harris' retirement in 1999.

Power cuts occur about twice a year on average and can be categorised into mechanical failure, electrical fault or operational error, the latter being almost negligible.  Future projects will include new conventional plant, the timing of which will be dependant on load demand; an experimental wind farm at Sand Bay; and exhaust heat recovery boilers to heat the Community School and the hospital.  These are all, as ever says Glenn, "subject to approvals and capital funding".

The information on this page is based on an article by Sharon Marsh published in the Penguin News on 15 October 2004 and reproduced with the kind permission of the Editor, which in turn uses as its source material an Alastair Cameron Project by Kerri-Anne Ross entitled 'The Power Station 1929-1999'.

Introduction, Brief History, Timeline, 1982 Timeline, 1982 Documents, Articles, Agreements, UN Resolutions
HOME, FACT FILE, BACKGROUND, HISTORY, BOOKS, LINKS

Site Designed and Maintained by eb-host.com