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| Despite the serious consequences
of the economic depression, Escom’s electricity sales increased. For a time, the
expansion of the power supply system was delayed. However, the discovery of new
gold-fields to the west of the Witwatersrand and a rise in the gold price brought new life
to the electricity supply industry. |
PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTOGRAPH TO VIEW ENLARGED VERSION
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Klip power station |
PLEASE
CLICK ON PHOTOGRAPH TO VIEW ENLARGED VERSION
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Escom anticipated the
rapidly-growing demand for electricity from the gold mines on the Witwatersrand. Escom
realised that a larger power station than the existing stations would have to be erected
in the 1930s. The construction of Klip power station, situated near the town of
Vereeniging, was completed and the station was in operation by 1940. In a similar
agreement to that established for the erection of Witbank
power station, Escom was to finance and own Klip power station and the VFP was to operate
it as part of its own network. Two of Klip’s twelve generating sets exceeded
the full capacity of Witbank power station. |
| Escom House |
| In 1937, Escom moved to its new head office
building in Johannesburg. Escom House
was, at that time, the highest building in the country. Standing twenty-one storeys high,
it symbolised the breathtaking growth of the organisation. In the same year, more than 2
500 million units of electricity were sold. |
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| This webpage was last
updated on the 29 April, 2004 |
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