Historical Tarsus hydroelectric power plant

Historical Tarsus hydroelectric power plant is a defunct hydroelectric power plant, notable for being the first hydroelectric plant in Turkey.

Location[]

Tarsus is a populous ilçe (district) center in Mersin Province. The plant was in Fahrettin Paşa neighborhood of Tarsus in a place known as Bentbaşı at about

35°56′N 34°53′E / 35.933°N 34.883°E / 35.933; 34.883. Its distance to Tarsus city center was about 1,800 metres (5,900 ft).

History[]

The plant was suggested by an Austrian engineer named Dörfler. According to a rumour the first suggestion was a plant in İstanbul, the capital which was rejected by the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamit II.^[1] But one of his viziers Hulusi Pasha who was of Tarsus origin convinced the sultan for a plant in Tarsus, far from the capital. After the necessary permission was granted the plant was put into operation on 15 September 1902,^[2] about 20 years later than the first commercial electricity production in the world.

Technical details[]

The first plant was a low output dynamo which was driven by a watermill on Berdan River. Its output was only 2 Kw.^[3] Soon the primitive water mill was replaced by a turbine from İtalo Sulssera. The output increased and some of the more important streets were electrically lighted. But even then, only a few houses could use electricity. Moreover there were no switches and the dynamo operation was halted during the nights. There was no electricity meter and the consumers paid according to the number of electric bulbs they used.^[3]

Aftermath[]

During the First World War, a second plant was established and after the war, the municipality sold the plant to a private firm. According to a research by Professor Hamit Serbest, after many handovers the plant building was used as a fertilizer factory.^[3]

References[]