Electric power industry The world's first public electricity supply was provided in late 1881, when the streets of the Surrey town of Godalming in the UK were lit with electric light. This system was powered from a water wheel on the River Wey, which drove a Siemens alternator that supplied a number of arc lamps within the town. This supply scheme also provided electricity to a number of shops and premises to light 34 incandescent Swan light bulbs. Additionally, Robert Hammond, in December 1881, demonstrated the new electric light in the Sussex town of Brighton in the UK for a trial period. The
History of electricity supply in Queensland significant hydro-electric power station at Barron Falls, containing 3 x 1.32 MW generators, this being considered more cost effective than railing coal from the Bowen Basin. The expanded capacity enabled Atherton and Gordonvale to be supplied from that year. Meanwhile, electricity began being supplied to individual towns by non-government sources, such as the Butter Factory in Toogoolawah, which supplied that town in 1927, and then built a transmission line to supply Esk and Lowood in the same year, and was reported as having connected the "entire Brisbane (River) Valley" by 1936. The Butter Factories in Nanango and Allora supplied those