President Street Power Station, Johannesburg

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In an ill-fated gas turbine episode which marked the life of the first President Street Power Station, Johannesburg, supply tenders were invited, but although the cheapest was for steam driven plant, the consultants recommended a gas engine scheme that promised sufficient savings in fuel consumption to recover the increased capital cost within a few years. However, the Scottish contractors, Stewart and Company, supplied untested and experimental engines. There was a history of costly failure of gas engines in UK linked to the problem of bituminous coal and impurities that caused breakdowns. The estimated power needed by Johannesburg was almost10 MW, which required gas engines bigger than any previously built.

Mordey and Dawbarn recommended the following supplies which were adopted by the municipality:

500/600 volts DC (negative earthed) for the tramways.
460/520 volts DC for a 230+230 volt 3 wire distribution with earthed centre to provide power and light for the city centre.
3 000 volt 2-phase 50 Hz AC for transmitting power to outlying districts and to supply motor converters for distant DC tramway feeds.

Apparently no one had checked before starting on the scheme whether the bituminous coal to be used in the gas producers was suitable for the installation. Within months the engines ran into serious problems. New engines and producer plant proved unreliable and expensive to operate. There were heavy maintenance costs. An explosion in boiler house in March 1907 led to the entire installation being shut down in May 1907. By mid 1907 the City Council had to reject the whole scheme and instituted legal proceedings against the suppliers to recover their losses.