African Entrepreneurship Record

October 6, 1915.

Many exhibitors and tourists from overseas arrived in Dar es Salaam, and as time went by, the East African World Expo was finally about to begin. Exhibitors and tourists who were arranged or chose to live in Dar es Salaam had to go to the first town to reach the venue.

There are many ways to get to the first town, but most people will 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 circle, 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 circle. 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 and belongs to light rail transportation in East Africa. It is slightly different from ordinary railways. It is mainly powered by electricity, while most of the national railways in East Africa still use steam and diesel locomotives." Wang Hailong introduced to Chief Zhang on the train to the First Town.

The entire line of the Dar es Salaam intercity railway is an electrified line, and Chief Zhang also saw the extraordinary features of this railway.

A large number of power transmission devices are built on both sides of the entire line, and the trains on this line have no smoke, but rely on an antenna-like device to connect to the power grid.

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

Wang Hailong replied: "You can understand it this way. The two do look somewhat similar. In East Africa, the government has been promoting electrification. According to gossip, there is a high probability that the East African National Railway will also be transformed in this way in the future."

"Electrification..." Chief Zhang noticed this new word and whispered.

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 the East African government as an important part of the second technological revolution."

"For this reason, East Africa has built a national power grid covering the whole country, using high-voltage transmission to maintain the stability and efficiency of its own electricity."

"For example, about 10% of Dar es Salaam's electricity supply came from Morogoro hydropower, which is a large market share. After all, Dar es Salaam's electricity consumption is very large."

"This involves the decentralized distribution of electricity. The two mainstream methods of power generation are thermal power and hydropower. Power generation and hydropower generation. "

"Thermal power generation needs energy as support, such as natural gas, oil, coal, etc., and these resources are bound to be impossible to be available everywhere. For example, Dar es Salaam itself has very limited energy and needs to import a lot of it. "

"Therefore, a lot of power supply in Dar es Salaam mainly relies on imported coal, oil and other energy, or imported from other parts of East Africa. "

"The most famous of these are the two major projects of South Coal to North and West Power to East. "

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

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

This also shows the strong advantage of the British Empire in the field of coal energy today. After all, the latter three are British colonies, and there is no shortage of coal in the UK.

Wang Hailong then introduced: "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 rich. 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. 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 coal-rich areas."

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

"In addition to direct coal transportation, there is also an indirect way, which is to build a number of thermal power plants directly in southern East Africa, using coal as energy, converting coal into electricity on the spot, and then transporting 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 the north of East Africa is completely at a disadvantage. After all, energy is not only coal. For example, the north of East Africa has an advantage in oil and natural gas, and because of its geographical location, it is easier for the north of East Africa to introduce foreign energy to supplement local energy.

After talking about the transportation of coal from the south to the north, Wang Hailong began to introduce the west-to-east power transmission. Compared with the transportation of coal from the south to the north, the topic of the west-to-east power transmission is more worthy of attention.

"The main reason for the West-East Power Transmission Project is the hydropower resource advantage of East Africa. East Africa is a country with particularly rich hydropower resources, which is closely related to the characteristics of East African rivers. The terrain difference in the areas where the rivers flow through East Africa is large, so the hydropower potential is huge."

"This has led to East Africa being ranked first in the world in the development of hydropower resources. In the hydropower-rich areas in western East Africa, 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 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 precipitation in the region is large, the river water volume is large, and the seasonal distribution is very uniform. Coupled with the complex terrain and the large terrain difference, the entire Kasai Province produces nearly 38% of East Africa's hydropower resources.

Of course, this is only the result of East Africa's comprehensive development of Kasai Province's hydropower resources. 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 Kasai Province's hydropower resources? One of the important reasons is that Kasai Province's social economy is too backward.

Hesse Province is indeed a long-established economic power province in East Africa. It started early in industrial and agricultural construction and has many pillar industries. Therefore, giving priority to the development of Kasai Province's hydropower resources is 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, Kabwe City, etc., 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 joke. If human disasters are caused by poor technology, the losses will be huge.

Kasai Province is a typical sparsely populated area, and the East African government can let go. Even if a disaster is caused by the construction of a hydropower station, it will not affect a large number of cities and people.