Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Direct current versus alternating current
works and to establish its own power supplying company. On 21 May 1912 the construction of the city's own electricity plant was announced together with its intention to begin the acquisition with purchasing the unit on Váci út evaluated at 24 million korona. The first step to building a community electricity supply unit was to locate the appropriate site. Choice eventually fell on the Lágymányos winter port, which had advantages similar to those of the gas works site in Óbuda, such as accessibility by rail and water alike, the availability of water from the Danube, and the fact that the smoke from the plant’s stacks would not pollute the city's air. Commission to prepare the designs went to Kálmán Reichl, who had proved his competence with the Óbuda Gas Works; acting as Reichl's advisor was Hubert Sauer, the general manager of the electric works of Vienna. Construction work started in 1912 and was completed in two years. The 10,000 kWh capacity plant generated three-phase alternating current at a period of 50 and a voltage of 10 kV, which was transferred to the transformer via nine cables. Power supply from the Kelenföld Central started on 8 June 1914, and at the same time as the plant started to generate electricity, the plant used by the MV Rt. was also acquired for the city, thus establishing the Budapest Capital City Electric Works (BSzEM Rt.). Nominated director of the new plant was mechanical engineer Lipót Stark, who had been involved in designing several electric works abroad. 49 thousand consumers were supplied with electricity in 1914, but the director believed that there was plenty of room for further development in the area: "In the daytime and in the early morning hours I...I the energy generated by the plant ii underused with the equipment practically idling away. The idea offers itself) that at such slack times electric power should be offered at a reduced price. A natural prerequisite is that the consumer pay more for power consumed in the evening or commit himself to refraining from the use of electricity altogether in the peak hours. ” The promising trends in the development of street lighting were halted by World War 1. Kelenföld became a war factory under military command where coal was shovelled by Russian POWs, and vegetables were grown in the unused areas of the premises. The copper cables were first replaced with aluminium, later with iron wiring, which led to drops in voltage. Emergency measures were taken to ensure power supply including the restriction of per-flat illumination (allowing no more than 60 Watt lights), the prohibition of window-display illumination after the closing hour, and the raising of tariffs. And yet it was in the war years that the real advantages of electricity came to the fore. Public security deteriorated during the war with street lighting limited to the Inner City and the availability of nothing more sophisticated than gas lights in other public 39
