The oldest hydroelectric power plant in Serbia, the small HPP "Pod gradom" is located in I will enjoy it, on the river Djetinja, under the walls of the medieval city, which is how it got its name. Today it is a cultural monument and pride is "Electric utilities of Serbia".
Even the world-renowned expert from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, Đorđe Stanojević, suggested the residents of Užice to use the power of the Đetinja for the operation of the plant in the Tkačka workshop and to build a hydroelectric plant. The enterprising citizens of Užice realized that electricity leads to betterment, they founded a joint stock company and with a great ceremony the foundation stone was laid. The power plant started working on St. Ili on August 2, 1900. On that day, Užice received public electric lighting, the machines in the Weaving Workshop had electric drive, and around 400 households introduced electricity to their homes.
The equipment for the hydroelectric power plant was selected and ordered by the aforementioned Serbian scientist Đorđe Stanojević. And not just any kind, but the one that enabled the application of Tesla's principles in the operation of the power plant and in the transmission of electricity. Hydropower plant "Under the City" is the first in Serbia that operated on Tesla's multiphase alternating current system. The equipment was delivered by rail from Vienna and Budapest to Kragujevac, and then it was loaded onto Rabadžija wagons pulled by six pairs of oxen, over the heights of Jelica and the steep Potajnik to Užice.
The "Under the City" complex today represents a technical, cultural, museum and tourist complex.
Six kilometers upstream from Užice, in 1929, another hydropower plant was built on Djetinja - HPP "Turica". After the First World War there was an increasing need for electricity - not only in the Weaving Workshop but also in the ordinary world. Electrification in Serbia was in full swing and electricity was no longer a luxury but a basic necessity.
