Chapter 520 Power Plant
Compared to Ernst's control of the overall situation, Constantine focused more on detail control in East Africa. The father and son kept a close eye on East Africa, their own asset.
Because his son has recently been focusing on water conservancy construction, Constantine has been working as hard as he can and went to East Africa to inspect his own property.
“Is the construction of your power plant modeled after the Berlin railway station power supply plant?”
"Yes, Your Majesty, but it is a bit inaccurate to say that it is an imitation. The power plant in Berlin was produced several years ago, but ours has applied new technologies, and the First Town Railway Station is smaller than the Berlin Railway Station. There are many, so construction is not difficult.”
The power supply system of Berlin Railway Station was jointly developed and constructed by Hechingen Electric Power and Siemens. It is also the first power plant in the world.
The scale of the First Town Railway Station is definitely not comparable to that of Berlin Railway Station. After all, Berlin’s population and economic volume are much higher than those of the First Town. After all, Berlin is the center of Germany, a big city with a population of one million.
“In addition to supplying power to the First Town Railway Station, our power plant will also provide power supply services to surrounding areas in the future. After all, the station is a node of railway transportation and is destined to be linked to the local economy and industry.”
It stands to reason that this power plant in East Africa should be a commercial power plant, which is different from the political power plants built in East Africa before. However, East Africa is not purely commercial in nature. After all, except for royal enterprises, most of them are state-owned enterprises, so The assets of the First Town and Second Power Plant are different from those of commercial power plants in Europe.
“Really? As far as I know, the power generation capacity of power plants is very limited, and there don’t seem to be many large-scale applications except telegraphs and electric lights.”
“Your Majesty, science and technology are constantly developing, and many other electrical products are being developed. However, after all, the price of electrical products is very high, and the general public cannot afford them, so only nobles and businessmen will consume them to save face or improve their quality of life.”
“Then your power plant is still losing money as usual?”
Constantine’s words left the manager of the Second Power Plant speechless. He really didn’t want to pick up the pot, but who said this was His Majesty the King!
"Your Majesty, with the development of the times, the electric power industry will sooner or later enter thousands of households. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has also seen this and strongly supports the development of the electric power industry. However, the situation in East Africa is special. There are not as many wealthy groups as in Europe and the United States, so the development of electric power is promoted It must rely on administrative power to advance.”
When it came to his son Constantine, he didn’t say anything after thinking about it carefully. Although he said that his son spent money lavishly, he still had a good vision. Take the electric power industry as an example. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is an industry with potential, but now the electric power industry is indeed We can only make a difference in the high-end market, and the low-end market must be affordable for ordinary people.
"Your power plant, according to you, will provide services to the surrounding areas in the future. Can it supply it? And what industry consumes so much electricity?" Constantine asked.
Because the electric power industry is a new industry, it is extremely immature, and the power generation efficiency is also quite low. Take the first town as an example. There was already a power plant in the past. In addition to supplying power to government agencies, it can also supply power to street lights for up to two hours at night. .
The electricity industry in the first town and city is relatively developed. There are only a dozen cities in East Africa with electricity. Only the first town and Soga City have the most complete power facilities.
"Your Majesty, the main thing is this. Although the first town is the capital, it is impossible for future development to be completely without industry. According to the arrangements of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, some light industries with relatively low pollution will be developed around the railway in the future. Our power plant has no power generation capacity. It’s big, but it’s more than enough to provide lighting services for several factories.” Ernst is planning to engage in some light industry in the first town. There are three main modes of transportation in the first town, one is the central railway, the second is the highway, and finally the Central Canal.
In fact, it may be better to develop industry in the canal area, which can solve problems such as water sources and transportation. However, Ernst plans to put these industries in Bagamoyo City.
Because the location of the First Town, to be honest, was originally created by Ernst himself. In his previous life, this was just a small town around Dar es Salaam. It originally had no advantages. However, Ernst regarded this place as the capital and found that There are no downsides here and I'm too lazy to move.
As for the city of Bagamoyo, it still has some historical heritage. Of course, the ruins of the ancient Arab city of Bagamoyo were demolished by Ernst more than ten years ago. Now it looks like a completely new city.
Bagamoyo originally had no advantage in the competition with the city of Dar es Salaam, but since the opening of the Central Canal and the completion of the dredging project of the Little Rhine, Bagamoyo's status has suddenly become important.
Bagamoyo was originally a seaport. After the transformation of the Little Rhine River, it cooperated with the central canal, allowing Bagamoyo ships to reach the interior of East Africa and all the way to the edge of the plateau.
This water transportation advantage can radiate to the entire Central Province and serve as a bridgehead for the economic development of the entire Central Province. As for Dar es Salaam, its task is to be responsible for the import and export needs of Zambia and Zimbabwe through the Central Railway.
Dar es Salaam can be simply compared to Tianjin Wei, and Bagamoyo is Tangshan, but the first town cannot gather as many industries as Peking.
In addition, Suojia City shares some of the cultural, educational, scientific and technological functions of the First Town. The First Town is mainly responsible for administrative functions, somewhat similar to Melbourne in Australia.
Therefore, Ernst asked Ernst to make clear arrangements for each city in the Central Province, with a clear division of labor and coordinated development. In this way, apart from Dar es Salaam, the city with the greatest potential in the Central Province in the future is Soga City, which Ernst is most optimistic about. However, If Soga City wants to develop, it will probably have to wait until education and technology develop in East Africa to become prominent.
Hearing about the factory, Constantine became interested. He asked: "What type of factory is it? The first town does not have many resources."
"It should be in the processing and manufacturing industry. I know that there are two non-staple food processing plants, which have begun to site and plan for construction nearby, and there is also a paper mill. The scale of the food processing factory is not small, and it is mainly responsible for providing non-staple food products to the first town. , As for the paper mills, it’s easy to understand. The first town is the capital after all, so the demand for paper will definitely not be small.”
Constantine nodded, that's for sure. It's easy to understand the food processing factory. After all, it is the capital, and its consumption power is stronger than many regions. The demand for paper is indispensable for towns and cities. The main reason is that the number of official documents across the country is not a small amount, and the archives are even larger. In the past, paper in East Africa was mainly imported from abroad. Now, although the demand is much less due to the construction of some paper mills in the country, a lot of paper is still imported.
“Papermaking causes considerable pollution to water sources. Will Ernst agree to this?”
“Your Majesty, please rest assured that the drainage system connected to the First Town and Sojia City has been completed long ago. By then, the sewage will be discharged directly into the sea through separate drainage pipes without affecting the soil and water sources.”
The main pollution Ernst is worried about is air pollution. This kind of thing is difficult to control. Water pollution can be avoided by letting wastewater flow into the Indian Ocean through pipelines. Anyway, the First Town is very close to the Indian Ocean, and the First Town’s sewage pipes Built using cement and masonry, sewage will not come into direct contact with the soil.
(End of this chapter)