Chapter 520 Power Plant
Compared with Ernst's control of the overall situation, Constantine focused more on the control of details in East Africa. The father and son, one in a rough way and the other in a meticulous way, kept a close eye on East Africa, their own asset.
Because his son has been focusing on water conservancy construction recently, Constantine has taken the opportunity to inspect his own industries in East Africa.
"Is your power plant built in imitation of the power plant at Berlin Railway Station?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, but it's a bit inaccurate to say that we're imitating. The power plant in Berlin was built several years ago, and ours uses new technology. In addition, the scale of the First Town Railway Station is much smaller than that of the Berlin Railway Station, so the construction is not difficult."
The power supply system of Berlin Railway Station was jointly developed and constructed by Hechingen Electricity and Siemens, and is also the world's first power plant.
The scale of the First Town City Railway Station is definitely not as large as that of Berlin Railway Station. After all, Berlin's population and economic size are much larger than those of the First Town City. After all, Berlin is the center of Germany and a big city with a population of one million.
"In addition to supplying electricity to the First Town Railway Station, our power plant will also provide power supply services to the surrounding areas in the future. After all, the station is a node of railway transportation and is destined to be linked to the local economic industry."
Logically speaking, this power plant in East Africa should be a commercial power plant, unlike the political power plants built in East Africa before. However, there is no pure business in East Africa in essence. After all, apart from royal enterprises, most of them are state-owned enterprises. Therefore, the assets of the First Town and City 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. Apart from telegraphs and electric lights, there don't seem to be many large-scale application scenarios."
"Your Majesty, science and technology are constantly developing, and many other electrical products are being developed. However, electrical products are very expensive after all, and the general public generally cannot afford them. Therefore, only nobles and businessmen will consume them for face or to improve their quality of life."
"So your power plant is still losing money as always?"
Constantine's words left the manager of the Second Power Plant speechless. He was really talking about something irrelevant, but after all, this was His Majesty the King!
"Your Majesty, as the times develop, the 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 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 promotion of power development must rely on administrative power."
Speaking of his son Constantine, after thinking about it carefully, he didn't say anything. Although his son spent money lavishly, he still had a good vision. Take the electric power industry for example, everyone with a discerning eye knows that this is an industry with potential, but now the electric power industry can only make a difference in the high-end market, and the low-end market must also be affordable for ordinary people.
"According to you, your power plant will also provide services to the surrounding areas in the future. Can you supply enough? And what industry consumes so much electricity?" Constantine asked.
Because the power industry is a new industry and is extremely immature, the power generation efficiency is also quite low. Take the First Town as an example. There was already a power plant before. In addition to supplying power to government agencies, it could only supply power to street lights for two hours at night at most.
To put it in an exaggerated way, apart from the telegraph, electricity could at most power a few light bulbs and maintain the dignity of the capital of East Africa.
The power industry in the First Town is relatively developed. There are only a dozen cities with electricity in East Africa, and only the First Town and Soga City have the most complete power facilities.
"Your Majesty, the main point is this. Although the First Town is the capital, it is impossible for the city to be completely without industry in the future. According to the arrangement of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, some light industries with relatively low pollution will be developed around the railway in the future. The power generation capacity of our power plant is not large, but it is more than enough to provide lighting services for several factories."
Ernst planned to develop some light industry in the first town. There were three main modes of transportation in the first town: the central railway, the second was the highway, and the last was the central canal.
In fact, it might be better to develop industry in the canal area, which could solve problems such as water resources and transportation, but Ernst plans to place these industries in Bagamoyo City.
To be honest, the location of the First Town was originally created by Ernst himself. In his previous life, it was just a small town around Dar es Salaam and had no advantages. However, Ernst regarded it as the capital and found that there were no disadvantages here, so he was too lazy to move.
As for the city of Bagamoyo, it still has some historical heritage from ancient times to the present. Of course, the ruins of the ancient Arab city of Bagamoyo were demolished by Ernst more than ten years ago, and now it looks like a completely new city.
Bagamoyo originally had no advantage in the competition with Dar es Salaam, but since the opening of the Central Canal and the completion of the dredging project of the Little Rhine River, Bagamoyo's position has suddenly become important.
Bagamoyo was originally a seaport. After the Little Rhine was renovated and combined with the Central Canal, ships from Bagamoyo can reach the interior of East Africa and even the edge of the plateau.
This water transportation advantage can radiate to the entire Central Province and can serve as a bridgehead for the economic development of the entire Central Province. As for Dar es Salaam, its mission is to be responsible for the import and export needs of Zambia and Zimbabwe in the previous life through the Central Railway.
Dar es Salaam can be simply compared to Tianjin, and Bagamoyo is Tangshan, except that the first town or city cannot gather as many industries as Beijing.
In addition, the city of Soga shares some of the cultural, educational, scientific and technological functions of the first town. The first town mainly undertakes administrative functions, which is somewhat similar to Melbourne, Australia.
Therefore, Ernst made clear arrangements for each city in the Central Province, with clear division of labor and coordinated development. In this way, in addition to Dar es Salaam, the city with the greatest potential in the Central Province in the future, Ernst is most optimistic about Soga City. However, if Soga City wants to develop, it may have to wait until East Africa's education and technology develop.
Hearing about the factory piqued Constantine's interest. He asked, "What type of factory is it? The First Town doesn't have any resources."
"It should be the processing and manufacturing industry. I know there are two non-staple food processing factories that have already started selecting sites nearby for construction, and there is also a paper mill. The food processing factory is not large in scale, and is mainly responsible for providing non-staple food products to the First Town. As for the paper mill, it is easy to understand. After all, the First Town is the capital, so the demand for paper must be huge."
Constantine nodded. This was for sure. The food processing factory was easy to understand. After all, it was the capital, and its consumption power was stronger than many other regions. The demand for paper was inevitable in the first town and city, mainly because the national official documents were not a small number, and archives were an even bigger part. In the past, East Africa's paper was mainly imported from abroad. Although the demand has decreased a lot now because some paper mills have been built in the country, it still has to import a lot.
"Papermaking causes considerable pollution to water sources. Will Ernst agree to this?"
"Your Majesty, rest assured. The drainage system connecting the First Town and Soga City has been completed long ago. By then, the sewage will be discharged directly into the sea through separate drainage pipes, which will not affect the soil and water sources."
The pollution that Ernst is mainly worried about is air pollution, which is difficult to control. Water pollution can be avoided by allowing wastewater to flow into the Indian Ocean through pipes. Anyway, the First Town is very close to the Indian Ocean, and the sewage pipes in the First Town are built with cement and bricks, so the sewage will not come into direct contact with the soil.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
