 In 1997 there had been plans for a £130 million combined cycle gas turbine power station on the site of the Ever Ready battery factory to the West of the site of the North station.AES Electrical applied to the Department of Trade and Industry for permission to build the station, which would have been twice as efficient as the coal-fired Stella stations and the first major electricity generation site built in Tyne and Wear in over 40 years.The station would have had a generating capacity of 350 MW.