Old transformer sub-station / Stará trafostanice - Benátky nad Jizerou (Central Bohemia) - Historic Transformer Sub-Stations Buildings on Waymarking.com

The depicted old and no longer used transformer sub-station (22 kV to 120/220 V AC) from the 1920s is located in Smetanova ulice (Smetana Street) in Benátky nad Jizerou.

Sub-station was build by Družstevní závody v Dražicích / Dražice Cooperative Factory (ZD, see logo on the sub-station) during 1920s in the frame of electrification of the Benátky nad Jizerou region. ZD cooperative built and electric power grid and several small hydroelectric stations on Jizera river and became the most important electricity supplier in the region.

The ZD cooperative also owned a grain warehouse, three large mills and other manufacturing and processing businesses, such as a bakery, cider factory, smithy, brick factory in Lysá nad Labem, the Ozon factory in Vinec producing oxygen for industrial purposes, factory for the production of electricity pylons, repair station of farm machinery, Sales and supply cooperative Domovina and waterworks in Benátky. It has also set up a savings and back-up association for its members. The cooperative also participated in the development of the village Dražice (now a part of Benátky nad Jizerou), helped with the repair of the church and built a Research Institute for the use of electricity in agriculture. At that time, this unique enterprise was the pride of Czechoslovak co-operatives, known all over Europe and was visited by a number of foreign delegations. One of its co-founders was the landowner and agrarian politician Karel Prášek, who became the first chairman and later a long-term CEO of the cooperative.