Electrification of Antalya and Antalya old powerplant

During the industrialization process that began about six centuries ago, new energy sources directly influenced societies and this process has accelerated more than ever in the last two centuries. Firstly, an industrialization process focused on the textile industry in the dominance of water energy was experienced in industry at the end of the 18th century. After that, with the invention of the steam engine, coal energy has become important and steam power and railway era has begun. After this period covering the beginning of the 19th century, electric energy entered human life at the end of the 19th century and completely changed the daily life. Together with the new energy discoveries, these developments and changes in industry and daily life have been realized in five waves covering approximately fifty years. These waves are much more pronounced in the developed countries such as England and Western Europe, whereas they are slower in the countries that industrialized later than Europe like Ottoman Empire. Consecutive industrial waves, also known as Kondratieff Waves, have been experienced successively in all countries, regions or cities that are in the process of industrialization and a country, region or city could not move to the next wave without experiencing the previous one. For this reason, a particular region must have experienced previous waves in order to be in an advanced industry wave. In the light of this information, electricity, called as the Third Industrial Wave, has started the regions that were completed the first industrialization wave in which the textile industry had been developed or the second industrialization wave which had been the steam machine period. When the industrialization process of the Ottoman Empire is examined comparatively with Europe, it is seen that the Ottoman Empire was nearly a hundred years behind in many industrial branches according to the industrialization waves. When dealing with the Third Industrial Wave and the era of electric energy, it is understood that the six city/county of the Ottoman Empire began using electricity along with Europe. These places are Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, Damascus, Beirut and Tarsus. Under the leadership of these regions, it began opening power plants in Turkey in 1888 and fifty-three plants were operating in 1932. One of these factories is Antalya Power Plant. The power plant, which was established in 1928 by the self-devoted work and private enterprise of the local people, ensured the illumination of the city and provided the first electric lighting for local people who used oil lamps and gas lamps for lighting. This factory has been a turning point in the daily life. The use of electricity in Antalya and the beginning of the lighting of some streets and houses shows that modernization movement in Turkey's central cities has spread to the periphery. The factory, which runs for forty seven years starting the date of the establishment, was closed due to insufficient water supply. The factory was registered in 04.04.1997 by the Antalya Regional Board for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, but nowadays it has been abandoned since there has been no work for restoration. Beyond providing Antalya's lighting and let the beginning of the modern Antalya, Antalya Old Power Plant is significant for country, city, electrification and economy history as it is one of the first power plants in Turkey and established by private enterprise efforts to a city in the periphery. Under these circumstances in this thesis, it is aimed to examine the electrification and power plant of the city in terms of its contribution to the economic and social life of Antalya in the Early Republican Period and to reveal its importance for the history of the city. In this study, while the main focus is the electrification of Antalya and Antalya Old Power Plant, the other power plants opened in the same period in Turkey are researched and studied. Although there are examples of these power plants which are still standing, the studies about them are inadequate. Individual studies should be carried out for each of the power plant structures and they should be documented and prevented from being vanished from collective memories. The study has led to the investigation of Turkey's electrification process and revealing the importance of electrification in modernization, industrialization and the historical importance of power plants and it constitutes a basis for further studies. KEYWORDS: Antalya Power Plant, Electrification of Antalya, The Factories of Antalya in Early Republican Era, The Industrialization of Antalya