Leicester power stations are a series of electricity generating stations that have provided electric power to the City of Leicester and the wider area from 1894. The first station, located within Aylestone gas works, supplied electricity for street lighting. The city's new electric tram system was supplied from 1904 by a station at Lero which operated until 1930. A large coal-fired power station was constructed at Freemans Meadow in 1922 and was operational until 1976. Finally a gas turbine power plant was commissioned in 1976.

Leicester was one of first nine municipalities to obtain legal powers to provide street lighting in the town. The authority to do this was provided for under the Leicester Corporation Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. cc). However, little progress was made with the new technology. The Corporation of Leicester obtained, from the Board of Trade, a provisional electric lighting order in 1890 permitting it to generate electricity and supply electric lighting for the town. The Leicester Electric Lighting Order 1890 was confirmed by Parliament by the Electric Lighting Order Confirmation (No. 7) Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. cxcii).

The first power station in Leicester was built in 1894 within the gas works site on Aylestone Road (52°37′00.1″N 1°08′32.0″W / 52.616694°N 1.142222°W / 52.616694; -1.142222). It first provided electricity on 19 December 1894. In 1897 the plant had a generating capacity of 675 kW and the maximum load was 515 kW. A total of 262.179 MWh of electricity was sold to 331 customers which powered 26,512 lamps, this provided an income to the corporation of £6,056-12-9.

By 1923 the station comprised three 1 MW reciprocating engines and a 5 MW turbo-alternator. These machines were powered by total of up to 181,000 pounds per hour (22.8 kg/s) of steam from coal-fired boilers. The machines generated alternating current (AC) supplied at 240 & 415 V and 100 & 200 V. The electricity works were decommissioned in 1928 after the new power station at Freemans Meadow had been built.

In 1894 the Midland Railway Company installed a gas-fired power station in Leicester. This used two Dowson gas producers working on anthracite, the gas produced operated six single cylinder Crossley engines with porcelain tube ignition. Three machines drove 60-lamp Brush arc lighting generators and the other three drove 110 Volt direct current dynamos for incandescent lights. The total output of the station was 274 MWh per year. The Midland railway station and the goods yards were lit by 141 arc lights and 288 incandescent lamps. The system was reported to have run for many years.

Leicester's tram system was first built in 1874 using horse drawn cars. The Corporation of Leicester took over the system in 1901 and converted it to electric power in 1904. To meet this demand a new generating station was constructed on Painter Street (52°38′42.0″N 1°07′47.2″W / 52.645000°N 1.129778°W / 52.645000; -1.129778) the station buildings, comprising a boiler house and an engine room, were known as the Lero building. It was located next to the Grand Union Canal to facilitate the supply of coal by barge and for the availability of cooling water. The power station was officially opened on 18 May 1904. The boiler house was 108 ft long and 77 ft wide (32.9 m by 23.5 m). In 1904 there were four Yates and Thom Lancashire type boilers, these were 33 ft long and 8 ft 5 inches diameter (10 m by 2.5 m). The tapered octagonal brick chimney was 186 ft high (56.7 m).

The engine room adjoining the boiler house was 118 ft long, 60 ft wide and 40 ft high (36 m by 18.2 m, by 12.2 m). There were three 500 kW steam generating sets. The engines were Yates and Thom vertical cross-compound Corliss condensing type. The principal specifications of the engines were:

There was a separate battery room which supplied additional current when the demand on the system was high.