African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1200 Electrification

1915 10 Month 6 Day.

Many exhibitors and tourists from overseas have arrived in Dar es Salaam, and as time goes by, the East African World Expo is finally about to begin. Exhibitors and tourists who are arranged to live in Dar es Salaam or choose to live there on their own 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 cities in the Dar es Salaam urban area, including the First Town, Bagamoyo and Soga. In addition, Zanzibar Island and Pemba Island on the other side of the sea also belong to the Dar es Salaam urban area. However, the two islands and the mainland are separated by the strait, so the railway naturally cannot connect them in series."

"The Dar es Salaam intercity railway is circular in shape and is a light rail transportation in East Africa. It is slightly different from ordinary railways and is mainly powered by electricity. However, most of the national railways in East Africa still use steam and diesel locomotives." Wang Hailong introduced to Director Zhang on the train to the first town.

The entire Dar es Salaam Intercity Railway is an electrified line, and Chief Zhang also sees 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 do not emit smoke. Instead, they are connected to the power grid through an antenna-like device.

"Isn't this just an enlarged version of the tram?" said Chief Zhang's assistant.

Wang Hailong replied: "That's fine. The two do look somewhat similar. In East Africa, the government has been promoting electrification. According to gossip, there is a high probability that East African national railways will also undergo similar transformation in the future."

"Electrification..." Chief Zhang whispered, noticing this new word.

Wang Hailong said: "Electrification is a concept created by East Africans. It means that the whole society uses electricity in large quantities to replace traditional power sources such as steam. It is regarded by East African governments as an important part of the second technological revolution."

"To this end, East Africa has built a national power grid covering the entire country, using high-voltage transmission to maintain the stability and efficiency of the country's electricity."

"For example, about 10 percent of Dar es Salaam's electricity supply came from Morogoro hydroelectric power. This is a large market share, after all, Dar es Salaam's electricity consumption is very large."

"This involves the decentralized distribution of electricity. Currently, there are two mainstream ways of generating electricity, namely thermal power generation and hydropower generation."

"Thermal power generation requires energy support, such as natural gas, oil, coal, etc., and these resources are certainly not available everywhere. For example, Dar es Salaam itself has very limited energy and needs to import a large amount."

“So a lot of the electricity supply in Dar es Salaam depends mainly on imported coal, oil and other energy sources, or imported from other parts of East Africa.”

"Among them, the most famous are the South-to-North Coal Transmission Project and the West-to-East Power Transmission Project."

East Africa's coal is mainly distributed in the southern region. Compared with the Far East Empire in the previous life, the distribution advantage of East Africa's coal is mainly relatively convenient transportation. For example, Mozambique's coal is close to the river, while South Africa's coal is close to the seaport.

The disadvantage is that East Africa obviously does not have as huge reserves as the Far Eastern Empire. East Africa has a lot of coal reserves, but among countries of the same level in terms of land area, it can only bully Brazil. Other countries such as the Far Eastern Empire, the United States, Russia, Australia, Canada, and India all have rich coal reserves.

This also shows the strong advantage of the British Empire in the field of coal energy. After all, the latter three are all British colonies, and the UK itself is not short of coal. Wang Hailong went on to introduce: "The coal resources in East Africa are mainly distributed in the southern African region bounded by Lake Malawi. The coal resources around Lake Malawi are abundant. The Lake Malawi Industrial Zone in East Africa has developed based on local coal energy."

"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 a rising star among East African cities and has the richest coal reserves in the Lake Malawi region."

"Going south from Tete, such as the South African plateau, the Kalahari Basin, the southeast coast, and the Matabele Plateau are also areas rich in coal."

"Correspondingly, the area north of Lake Malawi is relatively short of coal resources, so East Africa's domestic coal energy dispatch is mainly transported to the north by rail, road, and sea. For example, most of the coal in Dar es Salaam comes from the Port of New Hamburg."

"In addition to directly transporting coal, there is also an indirect way, which is to build a number of thermal power plants directly in southern East Africa, use coal as energy, convert coal into electricity on site, and then transport it to all parts of East Africa through the East African national power 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 Far East Empire in the previous life. The two can be said to be completely opposite in direction, which also explains 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, energy is not limited to coal. 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 to supplement local energy.

After talking about the South-to-North Coal Transmission, Wang Hailong began to introduce the West-to-East Power Transmission. Compared with the South-to-North Coal Transmission, the West-to-East Power Transmission has more topics to talk about that deserve more attention.

"The main reason for West-to-East Power Transmission is the hydropower resources in East Africa. East Africa is a country with particularly rich hydropower resources, which is closely related to the characteristics of its rivers. The areas through which rivers flow have large elevation differences, so the hydropower potential is huge."

"This has led to East Africa being the world's number one in the development of hydropower resources. In the western region of East Africa, which is rich in hydropower resources, the most typical one is Kasai Province, where a large number of hydropower stations have been built. However, Kasai Province has a small population and underdeveloped industry. Its hydropower resources are very rich, so it is mainly transmitted to the east through high-voltage transmission."

Kasai Province belongs to the Congo River basin, and several important tributaries of the Congo River are located in its area. These rivers transition northward along the southern plateau to the Congo Basin.

The Kasai Province has a tropical rainforest climate, which means that the region has high rainfall, large river water volume, and a very even seasonal distribution. Combined with the complex terrain and large terrain differences, the entire Kasai Province produces nearly 38% of East Africa's hydropower resources.

Of course, this is only the result of the comprehensive development of hydropower resources in Kasai Province in East Africa. After all, there is no province around the Congo Basin that lacks such basic conditions. For example, Hesse Province is located in the transition zone from the Mitumba Mountains to the Congo Basin. It also belongs to the tropical rainforest area and has huge potential for hydropower resources.

Why did East Africa not give priority to the development of Hesse Province but chose the hydropower resources of Kasai Province? One of the important reasons is that the social economy of Kasai Province is too backward.

Hesse is indeed a long-established economically strong province 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 will be conducive to economic coordination among East African regions.

For example, after the hydropower resources in Kasai Province are developed, they can be exported in large quantities to central East Africa, supplying central industrial cities including Rhine City, New Frankfurt City, and Kabwe City, thereby creating a lot of economic value.

Of course, the East African government has another consideration in giving priority to the development of hydropower resources in Kasai Province. That is, East Africa's early hydropower technology and engineering technology were not mature. Building hydropower stations and large reservoirs is no child's play. If man-made disasters are caused by inadequate technology, the losses will be huge.

Kasai Province is a typical sparsely populated area, so the East African government can also let its hands run. Even if a disaster occurs due to the construction of a hydropower station, it will not affect a large number of cities and people.

(End of this chapter)