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PREORD
OFFICE
Reference
LAC.O.882/19
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE PEPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHK- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
| PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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In the Power House there are three water turbines driving electrical alternators with an aggregate capacity of about 40,000 H.P. These machines run at 94 r.p.m. Current is generated at 6,600 volts, and is then transformed up to 66,000 volts in the sub-station you see outside the Power House.
The main transmission lines run out thence in duplicate over the 52-mile route to a similar sub-station outside the Malim Nawar Steam Station. In that station there are again three machines of aggregate capacity of about 24,000 H.P., generating current at 6,600 volts, but running this time at 3,000 r.p.m. Steam is raised in four boilers, one of which is the largest in Malaya. These boilers are fed with powdered coal pulverized in the latest plant of this type. This station was erected in 11 months, a record performance in the Federated Malay States, and a fine performance in any country. Supply was first given from it in December, 1928, and thus many dredges and other plants were provided with electric power some 19 months earlier than would otherwise have been possible.
In addition to 66,000-volt transmission, there are 38 miles of 22,000-volt lines. over 50 miles of 6,600-volt lines, and our own private telephones of over 80 miles in length. There are also 13 sub-stations in operation, and from these 11 towns are being supplied with current for domestic use.
Everything throughout the system has been or will be duplicated as far as is practicable, and protected against lightning with the latest type of protective devices.
The whole operating system is controlled at one point in a central control room at Malim Nawar. Here, at the heart of the system, sits the System Control Engineer. He is in touch by means of our own and State telephones with the two power stations and every sub-station, with Head Office in Ipoh.
The output of electricity at present being generated is at the rate of about 75,000,000 units per annum.
We were about to commence work on this site when the great flood of December, 1926, swept in torrent down the River, and delayed the start of the Contract works. From that record flood we learned certain lessons which were remembered when the design in detail of the Dam was being worked out.
We look over some 3,000 acres of jungle, much of it infested with the malaria carrying mosquito. We called in that great expert mind of Sir Malcolm Watson to advise us upon the measures of anti-malarial treatment which would safeguard, as far as human knowledge would allow, the health of the thousands of workmen and the Management Staff that would, in due course, be employed and housed there. Under that advice, and the subsequent guidance of Dr. Waugh Scott, health record unsur- passed anywhere else in mosquito-infested tropical regions has been achieved the death rate having been under 5 per cent. The cost involved, though heavy, has been saved many times over. Had the labour force once got evidence that the area was an unhealthy one, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to have replaced those who refused to stay, and the time required to complete the work would have been considerably lengthened, and the cost heavily increased. This achievement has been rightly described as meriting an Epic." It is now quoted all over the tropical world as an example of what can be done by following the teaching of Science and experience.
The Civil Contractors for the Dam and Power House were Messrs. Topham, Jones and Railton, who had previously carried out large and important Government contracts here, and who have been represented here throughout by Mr. Croft, one of their Directors. This contract has not been an easy one. The only access to the site for the first 18 months was the river, until the road you have come over to-day was ready for traffic. During that time the Contractors' buildings and plant were erected and at work. Considerable difficulties were met with in the river bed, and excavation -to the extent of 60 per cent.-had to be carried out to a far greater depth than the Consulting Engineers had anticipated before sound and solid rock was reached, some 50 feet below the river bed, and much more concrete filling and re-inforcement- about 23 per cent. more was required. The centre portion of the Dam, while of great strength, is of complicated design, and the difficulties of doing intricate ferro- concrete and shuttering work in confined spaces in extreme heat, with Asiatic labour quite untrained to this class of work, have been considerable. Under all the circum- stances, the time taken to complete work, and the ultimate cost of it, will bear favour able comparison with any scheme of similar magnitude in any other country, and reflects great credit both upon designers and contractors. If an error has been made, it is probably one on the right side, viz., that of making the Dam unnecessarily strong. But the unprecedented flood of 1926 made it abundantly clear that no risks could be undertaken.
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The Consulting Engineers, Messrs. Rendel, Palmer & Tritton, who act for the Government of India, the Port of London Authority, and many other important Public Clients, associated with themselves for this Hydro-Electric scheme a Swedish firm whose name I cannot attempt to pronounce, and whom, for short, we have always referred to as the V.B.B. This firm had designed and carried out many, similar projects, and this we British Engineers must admit, that, if Sweden be visited, there will be seen there as fine examples of the most modern civil and electrical engineering practice as will be found anywhere. Both the British and Swedish Staff of engineers in general supervision of the work on the site have had a gruelling and grilling three years or more of it, under the patient and urbane guidance of Mr. Thulin, the Resident Engineer-in-Chief, and the Board desires me to thank them for the way they have stuck to their task and overcome great difficulties and the firm they represent especially for having originally so sited or located the Dam itself that events have proved its location to have been exact. But for this terininological exactitude, the cost of the work would have been further increased. I am sure, now the work is done, that both consulting engineers and contractors will forgive the Directors for the hustle, drive, and criticism they kept applied from a temperate zone with torrid zeal.
You will forgive me, too, if I pay tribute to the permanent staff of the Power Company who, for some time before, and ever since supply was commenced from our Steam Station, have carried out a strenuous task with conspicuous energy and ability. The work they have got through has called for an effort perhaps too long sustained. They have had to maintain a constant and reliable supply of current from a part of the system while the construction of the remainder was in progress.
Our first General Manager, the late Mr. John Ferguson, fell by the way. His untimely death, at the early age of 46 was a calamity. He made himself widely known, highly respected and affectionately regarded in all quarters, and by none more than by his own staff to whom he set a fine example in energy, skill and character. His duties were very ably borne for some 18 months by Mr. Topham, upon whom now fall the responsibilities of Chief Engineer and Assistant General Manager. Captain Dane has but recently arrived to become the General Manager of the undertaking, and his practical training as an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer, coupled with his wide knowledge of the East and long family association with Government authority and procedure, should enable him to carry out his great responsibilities with satis- faction to the Board. to the Company's customers, and to the Government.
This brings me to my last, and perhaps most important reference, viz., the financial partnership of the Federated Malay States Government in this enterprise. The Government holds 500,000 Preference Shares. and 75,000 Ordinary Shares, in the undertaking, and a few months ago advanced on secured loan the sum of £850,000.
Why was this extra money required? Approximately half of it is for additional assets, and the remainder is excess cost of the originally planned work. We largely increased the size of the steam station, which absorbed £250,000. To meet demands for current, we had to spend about £94,000 on sub-stations and lines not contem- plated in the original scheme The roads described in your programmes proved much more costly to construct than was expected, and absorbed £106,000. All these items are in the nature of additional assets which has cost £450,000 out of the £850,000.
The balance is excess cost, the Dam and Power House having cost about £350,000 extra, and the electrical and mechanical equipment generally about £50,000 more. To put it another way, the excess cost of works originally contemplated has been about 18 per cent. The remainder of the money has provided additional assets
The plant and equipment now installed is capable of a far larger output of elec- tricity, on a most conservative computation at least 60 per cent. more than the originally planned scheme provided. I will leave these facts to speak for themselves, and would only point out that the decision of the Directors to start supplying as soon as possible, and from a larger steam station, has enabled a gross revenue of over £200,000 a year to be built up already. With the tin situation so depressed and so obscure, the outlook to-day would have been very different had the Company been but now about to commence supply and build up load.
The Government now has a financial interest of £1,425,000, which is approxi- mately one-third of the total issued capital of £4,381,000. As regards the £850,000 recently advanced, I cannot attempt adequately to express the gratitude of Board
my
for this timely financial assistance. Owing to the financial crisis which developed in London and America last autumn, complete financial stagnation in the City of London resulted. It was impossible to raise new money for any scheme, however good. Such