Review of electrical equipment for power station water systems in the Eastern Transvaal

A realization of the advantages of electricity as a source of power motivated many industries and municipalities, at the turn of the century, to invest in their own power plants. It was soon appreciated, however, that centralized large generating stations could provide electricity more cheaply than numerous small installations. The advent of high voltage ac transmission gave further impetus to the establishment of centralized stations since these could be located remotely from the utilization centres. This enabled the stations to be constructed in regions where there were plentiful supplies of coal and water. The cost advantages of burning cheap low grade fuel and the elimination of expensive transportation were fully exploited leading to large scale reductions in electricity tariffs.