About Us

Electricity has played a major part in the development of industry in north-east England for over a century.  It was even prophesied by the great Victorian engineer George Stephenson, who was reported to have remarked to a junior partner in RW Swinburne & Co in Newcastle in 1847 that “I have the credit of being the inventor of the locomotive.  It is true that I have done something to improve the action of steam for that purpose, but I tell you, young man, I shall not live to see it but you may, when electricity will be the great motive power of the world”. 

The North Eastern Electric Supply Company (NESCo) was founded in Newcastle upon Tyne by local businessmen and entrepreneurs in 1889.  It was firmly in the vanguard of technical and organisational development for the whole of its 58-year existence up to nationalisation in 1947.  Its power stations and networks comprised the largest interconnected power system in the United Kingdom. 

The North East Coast Electric Supply Companies Old Employees (NESCOE) Association held its first Annual Reunion and Dinner at the Waldorf in London on April 25th, 1932.  In the Chair for the evening was Lt Col William McLellan, one of the founding Partners of the Newcastle consulting engineers Merz and McLellan.

The first Reunion comprised a group of 30 or so former senior employees of the  various municipal and private electricity supply companies operating in north east England in the early years of the 20th Century, including the largest of them all – NESCO (the North East Electric Supply Company) which came to dominate the Region in the two decades prior to Nationalisation. They had been pioneers of the industry in the Region and had moved on to important positions in other parts of the country.

Some of the developments pioneered by those notable engineers include:

• The application of the steam turbine for electricity generation, invented of course by Charles Parsons.  The 1500kW set supplied for Neptune Bank power station on Tyneside in 1901 was, at the time, the largest turbo-alternator in the world and the first large machine to generate 3-phase current
• The principles of reheat
• The first British example of a system control room and an integrated 3 phase public power supply network
• 20kV and 66kV cables
• The first examples of metalclad switchgear
• Balanced electrical protection gear still used and known as the Merz-Price system which did so much to improve the reliability and security of public electrical supply.
• A power station built and commissioned in 18 months from the date of site purchase to commercial operation of the first set – Carville, built on the banks of the River Tyne near Newcastle in 1903/4.

Carville was a landmark in power station design. It was the largest public supply station in Europe at the time and its Parsons steam turbines were then ten times the average size being installed elsewhere in British power stations.

The availability of a high-capacity 3-phase electricity supply, at a competitive price, on Tyneside and the adjacent industrial areas, was rapidly seized upon by the region’s industries such as coal mining, shipbuilding and heavy engineering where this new ‘motive power’ brought about major increases in productivity. The ‘comparative advantage’ that north east industries enjoyed at this time enabled them to grow and prosper.  The NESCO wires soon reached down to Teesside and the commissioning of North Tees power station in 19xx, coupled with an early example of ‘grid’ interconnection between the Tyne and the Tees to improve security of supply, facilitated the electrolytic production of chlorine and, ultimately, gave birth to the enormous chemical industry complex on both banks of the river.  NESCO even bought land and speculatively built factory estates, amply provided with electricity to nurture infant enterprises.

The Association was formed as a reunion. The records of the inaugural event show that the guest of honour was Mr. R.P.Sloan, Chairman of NESCO .

It was decided that the Reunion and Dinner would be an annual affair and it was held in London for a number of years before moving to Newcastle where it is now held annually each April. Eligibility for membership of the Association was open to serving members of the North Eastern Electric Supply Company, its associated companies and their consultants, principal among them being Merz and McLellan.

Membership of the Association now extends quite widely, with members not only from the electricity industry itself but also from other organisations, consultants and advisers who have held long associations with it. It is strongly supported by organisations on Tyneside, including Siemens, who acquired the former businesses of Reyrolle and CA Parsons, and Parsons Brinckerhoff, the successor Company of Merz and McLellan.  The Association currently has around 300 members and the Reunion in recent years has been as large as 400 members and their guests. 

The purpose of the Association remains that of facilitating an informal get-together of kindred spirits engaged in the many activities which form the electricity supply industry and that is what the Reunion is really all about. The function has broadened from its origins and now represents an important business function. Many corporate organisations now support it with their attendance. It is arguably second only to the Annual Dinner of the Institution of Engineering & Technology in London as one of theprestigious annual electrical power engineering gatherings.

The 81st annual Reunion and Dinner was held at the Civic Centre in Newcastle on 2nd April 2019 with 396 members and guests attending. Professor Phil Taylor, Head of Engineering at Newcastle University was the guest speaker.