Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti

Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti was a British electrical engineer who designed and built the Deptford Power Station in London, which began supplying power in 1889 and pioneered the transmission of high-voltage alternating current over long distances to serve a large metropolitan area from a single central generating station. Ferrantis design used far higher voltages than any power system built before it, proving that AC transmission could deliver electricity efficiently across many kilometers to reach customers far from the generating plant, a principle that became the template for large-scale electricity grids. He also designed alternators, transformers and high-voltage cables used throughout the early British electrical supply industry, and later ran a major electrical engineering manufacturing firm bearing his name. His work at Deptford is regarded as a landmark demonstration that the technology of central power generation could be scaled up to serve an entire city.