THE POWER ECONOMY OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600330208-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 208
• Publication Date: July 28, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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or THE UNITED STATES WITHIN TM[ ^,A-ITI. or wno..... ... ..
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Or ITS CONTENTS III ANT SIASIII TO AN DIIADTIOII,SD PERSON IS M0'
MIS111D ST LAD. SSPSODDDTIOM OF THIS TOR% II rMDUITtO. -
SOURCE Elektrichestva, No 2, 1950.
THE POWER ECONOMY OF CZECHOSIAVAKIA
Power Resources and Their Utilization
The main power resources of Czechoslovakia are coal and water gawer..?Coal
is used to obtain power both directly and by-preliminary gasification. Black-
coal reserves are estimated to be 6.5 billion tons, 6.1 billion of which are in
the Ostrava-Karvina Basin. (l) ' Brown-coal reserves are put at over 12 billion
tons, 11.5 billion tons being in the North Bohemian Basin.
The output coal, and also the production of gas from coal, is shown in
Table 1. (2, 3)
Annual 01,tput
.. w~Mtr-S4~e ~
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DISTRIBUTION TTT
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INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
CLASSIFICATION' , COHI!IDEKIIONFIDENT1A
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia
SUBJECT Economic - Power economy
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical'
WHERE
PUBLISHED Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED Feb 1950
LANGUAGE Russian
Black Coal
'1,000.-tons.)
Brown Coal
(1000 tons)
Gas
(million _Cum)
1929
16,522
22,561
---
1935 '
10,895
15,114
---
1936 -
12,233
15,949
1937
16,778
17,895
136.3
1945
11,716
15,356
174.9
1946
14,168
193,459
232.5,
1948
17,746
23,589
611.5
Very little use has. yet been made of water power resources. The total,
electric power produced by hydro stations in 1946 was 583,700,000 kilowatt-
hours, or 8.75 percent of the total produced in the country. Extensive
building of hydroelectric power stations began in 1947.(4)':; Over 16 hydro-
electric power stations are in Ift' eeLa or.have already been completed 5).
. .ail
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST.a/jui 1950
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
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CONFIDENT
coNFIDENPIAL
Production of Electric Power
Table 2 shows the production of electric power for the country as a
whole, according to types of stations and per person for several years.
(2,4,6,i4)
1950
Electric Power Generated
1937
1946
1247
1948
(plan)
Total (million kw-h)
4,115
5,622
6,663
7,515
8,880
By general purpose sta-
tions (million kw-h)
By industrial stations
1,534
2,378
2,753
--
(million kw-h)
2,581
3,244
3,910
By hydro stations
(million kw-h)
Per person (kw-h,)
--
285
584
432
446
542
-
616
--
During the first 20 years of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938), the
power of its electric stations was tripled, and the production of electric
power was almost tripled, reaching over 4 billion kilowatt-hours. Six years
of German occupation had an adverse effect on the tempo of electric power pro-
ductiohV'During the'past~-41 yeaysqcthe production.of electritc?powpr,idn Czecho-
slovakia has again been intreasiiig;atus=rapid rate4,!It has_ibgreasod!,by,~82t5
perceupy'as comparediwith11937y'and.is five times-as much aauit9*8s in: 1918.
Thus, the increase.in`the:production,of.electric power;,duhingathel;pgetrb years
(about 3.3 billion kilowatt-hours) exceeded the increase in production after
20 years of bourgeois stewardship. The further increase of electric power
production provided for in the Five-Year Plan for the Development of the
Czechoslovak Republic is also proceeding in accelerated tempo. According
to the plan, the 1953 production of electric power will be 11,200,000,000
kilowatt-hours, the increase during the plan being approximately 3.7 billion
kilowatt-hours.
On 1 January-1949 the power industry (the production of electric power
and. gas) included 1,180 enterprises and a labor force of 43,391 persons.(7)
The distribution of these enterprises according to ownership is shown below:
No of
Enterprises
Labor
Force
State-owned enterprises
1,151
8
43,283
Cooperative enterprises
Total socialist enterprises
1,159
43,345
Private capital enterprises
8
33
owned enterprises
rivatel
ll
S
13
13
y
p
ma
Total
1,180
43,391
On 1 December 1945 there were 1,643 electric power stations in the country,
including industrial statipns.(8)'1 In 1947 there were 992 electric power
stations in operation in the Czech Provinces alone (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia),
720-of these being industrial stations.(9);; Most of these stations are steam
operated, working on coal.
CONFIDENTIAL
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CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
At the beginning of 1946) work was started on plans for enlarging and
rebuilding a number of stations -- Stechovice, Ervenice, Oslavany, Kolin,
Porici, Trebovice -- and also for building new stations in Slovakia. In
1946 a start was made on enlarging the stations of the Ervenice Power Com-
bine (North Bohemia region), as follows:
Ervenice - Power after enlargement 140,000 kilowatts. (8)
Komorany - 220,000 kilowatts.
This combine will satisfy all the power requirement of the North Bohemia
industrial region.
Czechoslovakia has high-voltage interconnecting ties with Polai4;Hun-
gary, and Austria and, consequently, can import and export electric power.
In 1946, 102 million kilowatt-hours were imported and 3 million kilowatt-
hours exported. In 1947 the corresponding figures were 116,600,000 and
2,700,000. (4)
The techni-al and economic indexes of operation of electric power sta-
tions in Czechoslovakia are still not high enough and show that there are
considerable reserves. Table 3 shows the technical and economic indexes
for all the general purpose steam electric power stations in Czechoslovakia
and for the industrial steam electric power stations of the Czech Provinces
(arranged according to specific fuel consumption). (10)
Table 3.
Mean Specific Fuel
Consumption
Cals per
Kw-h Gen-
erated
Grams of
Ideal fuel
per Kw-h
Utilization
of Rated
power
(hr)
Mean Rated
Power
(kw)
Proportionate Impor-
tance of Given Group
of Stations as Regards
No of
Electric Rated
Power Power
Stations
Power
Generated
M
a. General Purpose Stations
3,304
472
2
8.6
9.01
3,330
30,975
4,527
'646
8
42.35
44.38
3,610
38,200
5,483
783
6
12.47
10.57
2,700
15,000
6,309
901
10
31.96
33.78
3,355
23,037
7,235
1,033
5
2.89
1.76
1,930
4,176
8,245
1,179
2
0.68
0.24
1,150
2,441
10,608
1,516
3
0.21
0.05
732
507
12,600
1,800
1
0.19
0.07
1,200
1,376
13,520
1,932
3
0.23
0.09
1,195
561
14,168
2,024
1
0.08
0.02
675
550
18,190
2,600
7
0.34
0.03
1,830
354
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C0NFIDENTIAL nnlu[IfICMTIM
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CONFIDENTIAL CONF1DEND
(Table 3 Continued)
Mean Specific Fuel
Cals per Grams of Electric Rated Power of Rated Mean Rated
(kw)
rh den- Ideal fuel Power Power Generated Power Power
e rated pe`r ,Kw-h Stations
Average
5,199
743
48
100.00 100.00 3,160
15,150
3,590
513
b.
51
Industrial Stations
22.51
30.32
3,600
5,625
4,250
607
44
4.43
4.19
2,410
1,300
5,870
839
56
9.30
4.97
1,370
2,140
6,120
875
178
51.89
55.84
2,770
3,720
8,430
1,204
192
10.20
3.57
910
715
10,580
1,512
63
1.62
0.95
1,470
356
14,900
2,178
5
0.08
0.16
725
217
5,483
784
589
Average
100.00
100.00
2,580
2,190
Power Machine Building and the Electrical Industry
At present, the Czechoslovak electrical engineering industry has 37 com-
bines (people's enterprises, according to the terminology adopted in Czecho-
slovaki,a) with a labor force of 51,000.(11)! ' The 14 largest combines in-
clude 194 plants. The most important products are shown in Table 4. (3, 6,
12, 13). In addition, in 1947 plants of the electrical engineering industry
produced streetcars and trolley buses.
Table 4
1-937
1947
1948 1953
tan
Electric motors, 0.5 to
2
6
890
25 kw (thousands)
81.6
222.1
.
27
Electric motors, up to
0.5 kw (thousands)
--
Radio receivers
(thousands)
282.8
104.5
162.8
267.7
300
Telephones (thousands)
32.7
40.3
72.8
84.2
150
Electric lamps (millions)
6.09
8.13
12.46
14.01
--
Radio tubes (thousands)
--
--
1,652.4
2,388.8
--
Proportionate Impor-
tance ofr,4iven Group
of Stations as Regards
No of Utilization
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By the end of 1948, the electrical engineering industry considerably
exceeded the prewar production level, as is shown by the data in Table 5
6n percent). (11)
1937
1946
1948
Gross output
100
104
240
No-of workers
100
136
167
Output per worker
100
76
144
National Economy for 1947 - 1948 was fulfilled as follows for the most impor-
Electric motors UP to 0.5 kilowatt
95.0
Electric motors from 0.5 to 25 kilowatts
106.0
Radio recr,'.vers
128.1
Telephone equipment -
110.2
Electric lamps
92.9
Radio tubes
104.0
Electrical equipment for aircraft and
automobiles
105.0
In 1948, 35 percent of all electric motors produced were turned over
directly for equipment installation in capital construction; 44 percent went
to combines of the metal industry, 15 percent'to agriculture, and 6 percent
to industrial and trading enterprises.
The tasks confronting the electrical machine building industry in the
first Five-Year Plan are causing the emphasis to shift to heavy equipment
(turbines, generators, etc.).
Organizationally, electrical machine building in Czechoslovakia is di-,
vided into three groups.
Group 1: Capital Equipment (heavy electrical machine building,
light electrical, machine building, measuring apparatus, cables and conduc-
tors, communications and electrotherapeutic equipment).
Group 2: Mixed Equipment (installation materials and lamps, storage
and dry batteries, electrical equipment of aircraft and automobiles).
Group 3: Consumers' Goods (electric lamps, radio tubes, domestic
appliances, and radio receivers).
By the end of the first Five-Year Plan, in comparison to 1948, heavy elec-
trical machine building production will have increased 3.25 times, light elec-
trical machine building 1.93 times, communications equipment 3.25 times, cables
and conductors 1.6 times, installation materials and lamps 2.38 times, and other
branches about 1.56 times. The average for the industry as a whole 'is 2.05 times.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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CONFIDENTL!L
Zia Vauca ..v p+..- --
techniques,'mention may be made of the following achievements of the Czecho-
slovak electrical machine building industry.
The Tesla Plant in Hloubetin has manufactured the prototype of a new
machine, the "Traformat," which automatically assembles the internal parts
of transformers. It can perform 60 man-hours of work in 10 seconds, and
processes 4.5 tons of iron in one working day. The Skoda Electrical Engi-
neering Plant in Pilsen has produced a new type of high-voltage breaker,
the VV100/600, for APV (automatic repeated reclosing). Series production
is in progress. The breaker is designed for use with 100-kilovolt networks
and is operated by compressed air at 20 atmospheres.
The value of production will in 1953 attain 492 percent of the 1937,
ngoindustry ilwill
coftt he electrial engineering
level. The labor force
labor
have increased by 253 pe par c
with will have increased by 195 percent as against 1937, and by 135.5 percent, as
against 1948. The gross production of the industry will amount to 18.3 bil-
lion crowns in terms of 1948 prices.
50X1-HUM,
1. Chekhoslovakiya (Czechoslovakia), published by Orbis, Prague, pp
28-39, l9 7?
2. Statisticka prirucka (Statistical Handbook), pp 56-59.
3. Chekhoslovatski yezhenedellnyy ekonomicheskiy s ravochnik (Czecho-
slovakian Weekly Economic Bulletin), no 165, 1949.
If. Chekhoslovatskiy yezhenedel'nyy ekonomicheskiy spravochnik, No 138,
5. Rude pravo, No 241, 1947.
6. Statisticky zpravodaj (Statistical Information), No 3, 1949.
7. Statisticky zpravodaj, No 5-6, 1949.
8. Elektricheskiye stantsii (Electric Power Stations), No 2, 1947.
9._ Chekhoslovatskiy yezhenedel'nyy ekonomicheskiy spravochnikc, No 156,
1948.
10. Electrotechnicky Obzor (Electrical Engineering Review), No 6-7, 1949.
11. Ibid. No 4-5, 1949.
12. Sbornik zakonov Chekhoslovatsko res ubliki (Collections of Laws of
the Czechoslovak Republic), No 90, Law No 241, 2 Nov 3948.
13. Statisticar zpravoda,j, No 2, 1947.
14. Electrotechnik (The Electrical Engineer), No 10, 1949.
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CONFL)ENTIAL
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