The “Power and Light” thermal power station on the right bank of the Danube was built in 1930–32 by and to blueprints of the Swiss Basel-based Electrification and Transport Society. It consists of the station building, the portal crane with a river inlet, the pumping station and the water filtering plant.
The cubic power station building houses three functions: boiler room, machine hall and control room. The crane is a large structure with the bridge travelling the length of the inlet on fixed rails (140 m) powered by two electric motors. The pumping station furnished with pumps and pipes and the filtering plant with pools are at the inner end of the inlet.
The architecture of the building reflects modernist concepts current in interwar European architecture. The use of modern materials, steel and glass, the lack of ornament, the priority of function and the simple geometry of the volume suggest an influence of the Bauhaus style. The thermal power station holds an important place in the social and technological history of Belgrade.
It marked the first use of a low voltage distribution system for supplying the city with alternating current power and played an important role in upgrading the municipal electric power system between the two world wars. The electrification of Belgrade enabled the application of technological innovations in transportation and telecommunications which, changing human habits, led to a changing social profile of urban population.