SNIPPETS OF OUR PAST - End of an Era- Electricity and Port of Spain.

How many of us are cognizant of the fact that the Powergen plant in Port of Spain which was decommissioned in 2016 was the location of the first electricity plant in Trinidad and Tobago?
Private electric generators had been in existence in the island for some time so it was no great novelty . The Waterloo Estate sugar factory had electric lights from as early as 1885 as did the massive sugar works at Usine Ste. Madeleine. Port of Spain however, continued to be illuminated by streetlamps fueled with coconut oil which was both smelly and of poor illumination properties. A gasworks had been erected at La Fantasie in St. Ann’s in the early 1880s but this provided gaslight to only a few wealthy homes in the upper part of the city, including the Governor’s Mansion (now President’s House).
Since 1887, the Town Council had passed an ordinance for the initiation of electric lighting , but it was up to an enterprising businessman named Edgar Tripp to get the ball rolling. He registered a company on July 5th 1894 called “The Electric Light and Power Company” with Trinidad’s richest man, William Gordon Gordon as Chairman, and himself as company secretary. In anticipation of being awarded the concession to provide electric power, Tripp began placing tall cedar poles throughout the city which required the trimming of trees. These were higher than the poles installed in 1885 by the Commercial Telephone Company and that firm objected strenuously since it was feared that contact between the electric and telephone cables could ignite fires. Mere weeks after the electric company was formed the concession came through with the commitment that Port of Spain should have electric lights before March 5th1895. Simultaneously, work was beginning on a generating plant at a place called Shine’s Pasture in Woodbrook which had been leased by Tripp some time before at the princely sum of $100.00 per annum. Mr. Khun, the chief engineer (and incidentally the owner of the island’s first automobile in 1900) pulled off a small miracle in networking a huge coal-fired steam boiler to massive electric dynamos.
The large doings of the electric company raised its share of debate at the Legislative Council as well as in the Town Hall on Knox St. In the latter, Councillor Emmanuel ‘Mzumbo’ Lazare (a brilliant young black lawyer) questioned why lines were not channeled underground instead of being run overhead but he was told that work had progressed too far to consider that option. One has to reflect on the vast difference underground lines would have made to the landscape of Trinidad in later years.
The momentous day arrived on February 25th 1895 when Tripp did a final inspection to much applause, and the lights went on for the first time. The Governor’s wife, Lady Broome, asked for this favour so that he could take the first English cricket team to visit Trinidad on a night drive.
The official launch date however, was a week later. One of the first buildings to benefit from the new power supply was the Queen’s Park Hotel which itself was the result of another one of Edgar Tripp’s business ventures. A subsidiary company was created within the year to provide electric tramcars for the streets . In 1901, controlling interest in the Tripp’s firm was acquired by a Canadian businessman who simultaneously signed a 30 year contract to provide power through a new entity, the Trinidad Electric Company. In addition to supplying power and tram services, the TEC sold electric appliances , operated an ice factory to manufacture the cold stuff from pure tap water, and undertook general electrical contracts for private individuals. The original coal boiler installed by Mr. Khun was eventually converted to run on oil and boosted with the addition of more dynamos. The colonial government acquired the firm after 1933 and this was to usher in an island wide electrification drive since there was no public power grid outside of Port of Spain, and San Fernando which had its own private generator since 1923 as will be seen in next week’s column. Thus, as the clock ticks for the winding-down of operations at the POS Powergen plant, it would be well to reflect for a moment on the distant days now past when Edgar Tripp made the nights brighter with electricity for the first time , 120 years ago. Source: Angelo Bissessarsingh, the Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago