The First Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Balkans Built on the Basis of Tesla’s Principles

Abstract

At the end of the 19^th century, Serbia was among the first European countries to start electrification. A very bad economic situation, caused by centuries-old slavery and lack of capital, did not prevent the Serbs to start introducing electricity into settlements and a few industrial plants. They had the idea of ​​introducing electricity implemented before many other more developed countries of Europe and the world. A great merit for this belongs to the Serbian scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, as well as to his good friend Djordje M. Stanojević, the professor and rector of Belgrade University. The first electric power plant in Serbia, which produced direct electric current by coal combustion, was put into operation in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, in 1893, twelve years after Edison’s first such plant in the world. Also, the first hydroelectric power plant with three-phase alternating electric current in Serbia began operating in 1900, four years after the first power plant of its kind in the world (Niagara Falls, 1896). This hydropower plant, the first in the Balkans and one of the first in Europe, is described in this paper.