The Linear No Threshold model says that there is no safe level of radiation exposure. There is overwhelming evidence it is false, yet it inspires the ALARA principle, which makes nuclear power unaffordable worldwide. Read the lead article from Issue 19 of Works in Progress.
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In 1883, Sir Coutts Lindsay, owner of the Grosvenor Art Gallery in Bond Street, decided that he wanted to illuminate his paintings without the smoke produced by gas lanterns. He installed a small generator, first in the yard and then in the basement of the gallery. This was a cutting-edge status symbol at the time. The generator turned out to produce more than enough electricity to power his gallery lights, so he started to supply the excess power to his neighbors via overhead cables.
In 1887, after being pitched by a professional engineering team, Sir Coutts formed the London Electricity Supply Corporation. To spare passersby the noise of the generator, to gain access to cooling water, and to allow it to buy cheaper coal transported by river, the corporation moved to a new base in Deptford. The Deptford facility was linked by cables to substations at the Grosvenor Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and Blackfriars. By 1891, the world’s largest generator and one of the world’s first modern power stations was up and running.
For its first decade, the project struggled as cost overruns, frequent fires, challenges meeting public demand, and a fatality during a government inspection made profits elusive.
The story of Coutts Lindsay and the London Electricity Supply Corporation is typical of the early days of electricity supply, not just in the UK, but around the world. Uncoordinated local efforts struggled with growing demand and the absence of economies of scale. In New York, Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station, completed in 1882, became one of the first centralized power plants. It served an area of one square mile.
The early market for electricity generation and distribution was chaotic. The first two decades of the 20th century saw UK local authorities and a grab bag of private companies locked in bitter and counterproductive competition with each other. Between 1900 and 1913, 224 new generation projects came online, at varying voltages, frequencies of supply, and using different kinds of current, and almost all using their own cables. In 1918 London, there were 50 different systems, ten different frequencies, and 24 voltages in operation.
This era saw entirely privately-financed companies expand supply significantly, and prices fell steadily as they did so. In that respect, it is similar to the railway manias of the 1840s and 1860s, when speculative investment in railway projects led to over 6,000 miles of railway line being constructed – but also incinerated the modern equivalent of £300-400 billion of investors’ money, because so many turned out to be uneconomical.
As usage ramped up and resources were squeezed, especially during the First World War, the limitations of the UK’s electricity system became apparent. To understand why, we need to take a brief detour into physics.
Grids and why we need them
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