Abstract
THE annual report of the Electricity Commissioners for the year ended March 31, 1935 (H.M. Stationery Office. 3s.), records a noteworthy expansion of the public supply of electricity. There is an increase of 1,715 million units on the output of the previous year. This is the largest actual increase hitherto recorded, and is equivalent to a growth of 12.1 per cent. The expansion is largely due to the increase of the domestic load. The Commissioners point out that owing to the persistent demand for the facilities and amenities capable of being provided by a public supply of electricity, there will doubtless be a great increase in the present consumption before ‘saturation point’ will be reached. There will be a wide field of opportunity presented for the electrical and mechanical equipment of industry when the present factory generating plant and prime movers become obsolete. There are possibilities also attached to the further development of railway electrification. The steam-driven power stations included in the returns account for 95-5 per cent of the total units generated. The effect of the progressive improvements in steam power station practice which have taken place in the stations of authorised undertakers during the past four years alone is shown by the fact that the average number of electric units generated per ton of coal and coke consumed has risen from 1,200 in 1930 to 1,425 in 1934, an increase of more than 18 per cent. The Commissioners deprecate the custom of some public supply authorities, when advertising for tenders, of specifying that the particular plant or materials should be the product of a particular firm or group of manufacturers.
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Rapid Growth of the Use of Electricity. Nature 137, 426–427 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137426c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137426c0