The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1934. “THE GRID”

Evening Star, Issue 21623, 19 January 1934, Page 8

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1934. “THE GRID”

The cable announcing progress at Battersea electric power station (where the next task will be the installation of the largest generating unit in Europe) provides an opportunity for drawing attention to the electrification of the British Isles. A few weeks ago there appeared in this paper some of the main features of the Shannon scheme in Ireland. There the generating power is water. In England and Scotland it is almost exclusively coal, there being one hydroelectric station at Rannoch, in CentralScotland, connected with “ The Grid.” There are also two in Wales. That is the name of the system brought into operation by the Central Electricity Board, which came into existence as recently as 1926 and completed its main construction task by the end of last year, well within the allotted time and at a cost of £27,000,000, which is only 2J per cent, above the Electricity Commissioners’ estimate. Those commissioners, appointed in 1919,, were the forerunners of the Central Electricity Board, it being their task to promote, regulate, and supervise the supply of electricity and map out the whole country into districts to be administered by a joint authority. Their plan having been submitted to the Baldwin Government and approved by Parliament, the Central Electricity Board was established to carry it out. Prior to 1926 there were a large number of isolated, independent generating stations in England. Under the Grid system many of these have been eliminated or converted , into distributing centres. When the scheme is completed the number of power stations will be reduced tp about a quarter of what it was when the board was constituted. Through this large-scale production in selected power stations advantageously sited and all inter-connected, great economies are achieved, not only in generation, but through the release of reserve equipment for regular, revenueearning use, instead of mostly representing idle capital. Now, in case of a breakdown anywhere, the stations bear, one another’s burdens. It is estimated that the saving effected by this interconnection will in ten years amount to the total cost of the construction of the Grid to the board, already mentioned as £27,000,000. The board has now entered on its second function, which is that of wholesaler of electric current. The selected power stations do not belong to the board, but to their previous owners, who generate the power and sell it in bulk to the board, and the latter sells it, at a price sufficient to cover running expenses and capital charges, to the distributors who retail it to the general public. The board thus operates as intermediary between the power producers and the local authorised distributors, and provides and operates the communication in the shape of transmission lines, of which 3,300 miles out of the 4,000 required are already in commission. A year hence the entire national transmission system, from the Grampians to the South Coast, will be in operation.

The 135 generating stations which have been “ selected ’’ from the 500 in existence when the board took over are the property either of municipalities or power companies, and the prices at which they sell to the board are fixed individually on a scientific basis according to the particular factors existing at each station. The output of all the stations is pooled by the board and transmitted in bulk to the local supply undertalyugs at 273 “ Grid points.” Co-operation between the local distributors and tlie board is enabling the latter to develop their reticulation rapidly, and in a few years’ time their lines will radiate almost everywhere. The process of rural electrification is gaining momentum rapidly, and it is the confident hope that in ten years’ time the present consumption of 225 units per head of population will be 500 units, and as the output increases the price to the consumer is expected to fall. Already during the last decade the price reduction amounts to about 25 per cent., and besides the increase to the competitive power of manufacturers for export there has been an amelioration of the smoke and grime nuisance which earned for certain parts of England the name of the ‘‘ Black Country.” In the rural districts farmers are beginning to realise the many advantages of electricity, and local authorities are improving the amenities of villages and hamlets by using power for water supply, drainage, and street lighting purposes. . There appears also to be a definite move by the railway companies towards the gradual electrification of- the railway systems, and as this proceeds it will greatly simplify the problem of rural electrification at a reasonable cost to the consumer. What with the parallel advance of road transport and rural electrification industrial enterprise is spreading into the countryside, besides which such industries as fruit-canning, bacon-curing, and sugar-beet and dairy factories are multiplying in the country, and there is no question that the countryside is coming into its own again, The flow of population from country to town has been axTested, and the swing of the pendulum is now the other way. Both the . installation and the operation of the Grid have played no small. part in the provision of employment. In densely-populated Britain the financial problem associated with the provision of a comprehensive national system of electricity supply is not comparable to what it is in a sparsely-populated country like New Zealand, and with the vast improvements made recently in the efficiency of the modern steam engine or steam turbine coal seems to have vast advantages over w-ater power except in unique conditions- such as are to be found in Sweden.