Chapter 1200 Electrification
October 6, 1915.
Many exhibitors and tourists from overseas have arrived in Dar es Salaam. As time goes by, the East Africa World Expo is finally about to begin. Exhibitors who are arranged or choose their own residence in Dar es Salaam and tourists have to go to the first town to reach the venue.
There are many ways to get to the first town, but most people choose the intercity railway between the two places, which is the fastest and most comfortable means of transportation.
“The Dar es Salaam intercity railway mainly connects the cities in the Dar es Salaam city circle, including the first town, Bagamoyo and Soga city, in addition to San on the other side of the sea. Chibar Island and Pemba Island also belong to the urban area of Dar es Salaam, but the two islands are separated from the mainland by the strait, and the railway cannot connect them. "
"The Dar es Salaam intercity railway is in a circular shape. It is a light rail transportation in East Africa. It is somewhat different from ordinary railways. It is mainly driven by electricity. At present, most of the East African national railways still use steam and diesel locomotives." On the train to the first town, Wang Hailong introduced to General Manager Zhang.
The entire line of the Dar es Salaam intercity railway is an electrified line, and Director Zhang also saw the extraordinary features of this railway.
There are a large number of power transmission devices built on both sides of the entire line, and the trains on this line have no smoke. Instead, they rely on an antenna-like device to connect to the power grid.
"Isn't this just an enlarged version of the tram?" said Director Zhang's assistant.
Wang Hailong replied: "It can be understood this way. The two do look somewhat similar. In East Africa, the government has been promoting electrification. According to rumors, there is a high probability that the East African National Railway will also be transformed in this way in the future."
"Electrification..." Director Zhang whispered, noticing this new vocabulary.
Wang Hailong said: "Electrification is a concept developed by East Africans. It is the widespread use of electricity throughout society to replace traditional power sources such as steam. It is regarded by the East African government as an important part of the second technological revolution."
“To this end, East Africa has built a national power grid that covers the entire country, using high-voltage power transmission to maintain the stability and efficiency of the country’s electricity.”
“For example, about 10% of Dar es Salaam’s electricity supply came from Morogoro hydropower. This is a large market share. After all, Dar es Salaam’s electricity consumption is Very huge.”
"This involves the non-centralized distribution of electricity. The two mainstream methods of power generation at present are thermal power generation and hydropower generation."
"Thermal power generation requires energy support, such as natural gas, oil, coal, etc., and these resources are inevitably not available everywhere. For example, Dar es Salaam has very limited energy and needs to import a large amount of energy."
“So Dar es Salaam’s electricity supply mainly relies on imported coal, oil and other energy sources, or is imported from other regions in East Africa.”
"The most famous of them are the two major projects of coal mining in the south and power transmission from the west to the east."
East African coal is mainly distributed in the southern region. Compared with the previous Far Eastern Empire, the main advantage of East African coal distribution is its relatively convenient transportation. For example, coal in Mozambique is close to rivers, while coal in South Africa is close to seaports.
This also shows the strong advantage of the British Empire in the field of coal energy. After all, the latter three are British colonies, and the British mainland is not short of coal. Wang Hailong then introduced: "The coal resources in East Africa are mainly distributed in the southern African region bounded by Lake Malawi. There are rich coal resources around Lake Malawi. Among them, the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone in East Africa relies on local coal energy. developed.”
“The two most famous cities are Mbeya and Tete. Mbeya is a traditional strong city in East Africa and has always been among the top ten cities in East Africa, while Tete is one of the top cities in East Africa. The rising star contains the richest coal reserves in the Lake Malawi region.”
"Going south after Tete City, such as the South African Plateau, the Kalahari Basin, the southeast coast, and the Matabele Plateau are also areas rich in coal."
“Correspondingly, the north of Lake Malawi is an area with relatively scarce coal resources, so East Africa’s domestic coal energy dispatch mainly transports it to the north through railways, roads, sea transportation, etc., such as Dar es Salaam. Most of the city’s coal comes from New Hamburg.”
“In addition to directly transporting coal, there is also an indirect way, which is to directly build a number of thermal power plants in southern East Africa to use coal as energy, convert the coal into electricity on site, and then transport it to all parts of East Africa through the East African national grid. "
The transportation of coal from the south to the north is very different from the transportation of coal from the north to the south in the previous Far Eastern Empire. The two can be said to be completely opposite in direction. This also illustrates the different energy distribution patterns of the two countries.
However, this does not mean that northern East Africa is completely at a disadvantage. After all, coal is not the only energy source. Northern East Africa has advantages in oil and natural gas. Moreover, due to its geographical location, it is easier for northern East Africa to introduce foreign energy sources. supplemented by local energy sources.
After talking about the South-to-North Coal Transmission, Wang Hailong started to introduce the West-to-East Electricity Transmission. Compared to the South-to-North Coal Transmission, the topic of the West-to-East Electricity Transmission is even more worthy of attention.
"The main value of the West-East Power Transmission is the hydropower resource advantages of East Africa. East Africa is a country with particularly rich hydropower resources. This is closely related to the characteristics of East Africa's rivers. The regions where East African rivers flow have large terrain differences, so the hydropower potential is huge."
“This has led to East Africa ranking first in the world in the development of hydropower resources. In areas rich in hydropower resources in western East Africa, the most typical of which is Kasai Province, a large number of hydropower stations have been built. However, Kasai Province has a small population and underdeveloped industry. Its hydropower The resources are very abundant, so power is mainly transported to the east through high-voltage transmission.”
Kasai Province belongs to the Congo River Basin and contains several important tributaries of the Congo River, which transition north along the southern plateau into the Congo Basin.
Kasai Province has a tropical rainforest climate, which means that there is heavy precipitation in the region, large amounts of river water, and very even seasonal distribution. Coupled with the complex terrain and large terrain differences, the entire Kasai Province produces East African products. Thirty-eight percent of hydropower resources.
Of course, this is only the result of the comprehensive development of hydropower resources in Kasai Province in East Africa. After all, none of the provinces surrounding the Congo Basin lacks such basic conditions. For example, Hesse Province is located in the transition zone from the Mitumba Mountains to the Congo Basin and is also tropical. In rainforest areas, hydropower resource potential is also huge.
So why East Africa did not prioritize the development of Hesse Province but chose the hydropower resources of Kasai Province? One of the important reasons is that the socio-economic development of Kasai Province is too backward.
Hesse Province is indeed a long-standing economic powerhouse in East Africa. It started early in industrial and agricultural construction and has many pillar industries. Therefore, giving priority to the development of hydropower resources in Kasai Province is conducive to economic coordination among East African regions.
For example, after the hydropower resources in Kasai Province are developed, they can be exported to central East Africa in large quantities, supplying central industrial cities such as Rhine City, New Frankfurt City, and Kabwe City, thereby creating a large amount of economic value.
Of course, there is another consideration for the East African government to prioritize the development of hydropower resources in Kasai Province. That is that the early hydropower and engineering technologies in East Africa were not mature. Building hydropower stations and large reservoirs is not a piece of cake. If the technology is not up to standard and causes man-made disasters, the losses will be huge. .
Kasai Province is a typical sparsely populated area, and the East African government can also relax its hands. Even if a disaster occurs due to the construction of hydropower stations, it will not affect a large number of cities and populations.
(End of chapter)