1911 The Salt Union erected a triple-effect vacuum plant at Runcorn[1] for the economic production of salt from brine. In this process exhaust steam from turbines driving electricity generators was utilised for evaporating brine. Only a portion of the energy so produced was used in the salt works, so the Salt Union obtained parliamentary authority to provide a public supply of electricity for power and lighting. A subsidiary company, Mersey Power Company, Limited, was formed to handle the public electricity supply.
Subsequently the company was allowed to distribute electricity to a wider area
1918 The company decided to meet the expanding demand by building a large generating station at Percival Lane, Runcorn.
1927 The development of the Mersey Power Co, a subsidiary undertaking of the Salt Union, Ltd., was dealt with by Mr. G. H. Cox in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Salt Union at Liverpool. With additions that have only recently been completed, the power company's plant, which included three turbo alternators and seven boilers had a continuous load capacity of 24,000 kilowatts. With this plant it could produce up to 126,000,000 units a year, or more than double its total sales in 1926. Altogether, the distribution system had necessitated the provision of 161 miles of cables and forty-seven sub-stations. In 1926 the company's sales of current were 50,760,000 units, compared with 45,725,000 units in 1925, whilst the sales during the first month of this year were equivalent to 62,500,000 units a year. Mr. Cox claimed that the company was now in the front rank of modern power stations, both as regards cheapness of production and the sale of current at low prices. [2]
1948 Nationalised[3]