Page 93 - Bulletin 11 2007

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Falls Power Co., known as the VFP, was registered with this objective. Under the
leadership of Rhodes, the De Beers Consolidated Mines at Kimberley planned to build a

new large central power plant after the Anglo-Boer War. This plant would initially
consist of two 1 MW (megawatt) alternators driven by steam turbines instead of

reciprocating piston engines. These would be among the largest in the world at that

time. They were commissioned in August 1903, but Rhodes did not live to see them in
service. He died at Muizenberg in 1902 and the dream of harnessing the Victoria Falls

died soon after.

In 1904 A. B. Reid & Co., a firm of building contractors, was engaged in building the
Royal Road Power Station, near the present Sunrise Circle. (Fig. 2.14). The plant

installed was all of British manufacture, the best that money could buy. Two 150 kW

Westinghouse generators were ordered direct-coupled to Belliss and Morcom two-crank
piston steam engines. These generators had the same capacity as those installed at the

first Harbour Power Station and at Molteno Power Station. By way of comparison,

some family motor cars of today have engines with a power rating of about two-thirds
of that which these had.

When the plant was already in an advanced stage of manufacture, Bennett asked for a

major change - the engines and generators should run at 375 instead of 428 revs/minute.
This involved extra expense of ₤402. The rationale behind this was no doubt to change

the frequency of the electrical supply from 60 to 50 cycles per second, which has now

become the standard frequency in South Africa. (For further technical details of the
plant see the attached Appendix A.)

Incidentally, Royal Road was named in honour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall

and York, later King George V and Queen Mary, who stopped over at Muizenberg
station on their way to Simon’s Town in August 1901.

At the end of October 1904 Westinghouse wrote that nearly all the plant had been
completed and was ready for shipment. But due to financial constraints, there were