Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Direct current versus alternating current

centenary of the 1848 War of Independence, which was followed by the instalment, on the restored Chain Bridge, of large-scale permanent ornamental lights limited in function to emphasising the pier gateways.

Along with the other public utilities, the Electric Works were nationalised on 1 January 1949, which involved the transferral of the power plants to the industrial centre and the transforming of the Kelenföld station into a thermal power plant. In 1950, on the occasion of the formation of Greater Budapest, the electric companies located in the vicinity of the capital had to be taken over by the capital city electric works, a measure to be followed by the transferral of the overhead cable system belonging to the public transport company as well. The rapid growth in road traffic rendered the illumination provided by the old-style incandescent lamps insufficient. Modernisation was heralded in by the instalment of experimental strip lights in József Attila utca in 1956. In terms of luminous efficacy and life expectancy these brought a threefold improvement on incandescent lamps, which means that the street section illuminated by them was that much brighter at equivalent power consumption. In 1961 the strip light ceded its predominant position to the mercury-vapour lamp, which fitted into traditional bulb holders.

From the late fifties on, the medium-voltage network was phased out with the low- voltage network being switched on to a uniform 380/220 V, three-phase alternating current from the old system operating at a nominal tension of no V. Input points on the transmission grid were set up at 120/10 kV in the inner-city areas and at 120/20 kV in outlying regions and the instalment of main distribution cables was also started. The centre of the load distribution service was first moved to Úri utca then to be relocated to Petermann bíró utca next to the main wing of the National Archives in Bécsi kapu tér.

The year 1966 brought another turning point in the history of the Electric Works when the company came under the direct control of the Hungarian Electric Works Trust under the new name of Budapest Electric Works (Elmű). From that time on the firm operated as a chartered authority entrusted with the delivery of regional supplies under the management of five plant management centres in charge of delivering the electric power purchased by the company.

In the wake of major changes in politics and the economy, the country’s electric power management also underwent major modifications: in 1991 Elmű was registered as a joint stock company with the Hungarian Electric Works Co. (Magyar Villamos Művek Rt.) and the State Holding Agency (Állami Vagyonügynökség) as the largest shareholders. As it had been done half a century earlier, the company opened cus45