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Reefton Power Station

Reefton, Italy

Reefton Power Station

Reefton Power Station supplied electricity to the very prosperous gold mining town of Reefton in New Zealand and was the first power station to supply municipal electricity in the Southern Hemisphere. It started operation on 4 August 1888. Reefton man George Rich Wylde (1858-1942), son of James Wyld

e, brought samples of Edison and Swan electric lamps back from a visit to Victoria, Australia returning on 8 January 1883 and a public meeting was called to consider an electricity generating and distribution enterprise for Reefton. Ross & Glendinning had been lighting one of their Dunedin factories with electricity since 1882. The Reefton Electric Light and Power Company was formed in 1886. The decision to build a power station was taken in the same year, following a demonstration of electric lighting in four Reefton hotels. The demonstration was organised by amateur electrician Walter Prince. The power station turbine was run by water supplied from the Inangahua River via two tunnels and a headrace flume. The Grey Electric Power Board purchased the scheme in 1946. After the town was connected to the national grid in 1949 the power station was decommissioned. Since the Reefton system used...

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