Economics of transmission and feeder systems for Urban electrical supply

I have first of all to. thank those members of the Institute who showed sufficient interest in the paper to discuss it, and, first of all, I deal with the President's appreciative remarks, in which he criticises the system we have of placing transformers in pits in the footpath, and says he can see no objection to the concrete transformer kiosk placed above the road level. Unfortunately, however, we have other people than ourselves to please, and, though I might not see any objection either, we have a Borough Engineer in Durban who raises all sorts of objections to our sub-stations, and we are literally driven underground in finding accommodation for transformers. I specially mention this because in the May-June number of the Metropolitan-Vickers Gazette is an article on static sub-stations in urban and suburban areas, in which is illustrated an arrangement almost identical with ours, with the pits in the footpath and switch-gear in a cast-iron pillar adjoining. There is also illustrated another device similar to ours in a steel tank, used where a brick pit cannot be drained, this tank being also placed underground with its switchgear in close proximity in a pillar.