Lights On in Greece

In Athens last week, a simple ceremony took place to mark a great step forward in the industrialization of Greece. There, operation of a new electric-power system, with three hydroelectric power plants, one lignite plant, and 4,300 miles of transmission lines, was turned over to the Greek government by Manhattan's Ebasco Services, which had designed and built the system. Said Ebasco's Harvey Breckenridge, onetime vice president of Pittsburgh's West Penn Power Co.. who supervised construction: "It's the first time in history that a nation has had a power system in such a short time."

The five-year-old project, which boosted Greece's power output from 170,000 kw. to 345,000 kw., was an outstanding example of international cooperation. Of the $115 million total cost, 27% came from U.S. aid funds, 30% from Italian war-reparations payments, the remaining 43% from Greek funds. Equipment came from all over Europe, e.g., the 3,500 steel transmission towers were made in Italy, the generators came from Switzerland.

The project was badly needed. In 1950, per capita consumption was 50 kw-h compared with neighboring Italy's 600 kwh. Electricity was so scarce that when an Athens housewife used her electric stove, radios went dead and clocks went off.

The new system will not bring power into every corner of Greece's 50,000 square miles, an area about the size of Florida. But last week one of the first acts of the Greek Public Power Corp. was to ask Breckenridge and some of the 66 U.S. technicians on his staff to stay on a while longer, supervise the building of two more plants that will add another 150,000 kw. to the system in the next three years.

When the expansion is completed, 5,000 Greek towns and villages will be able to throw away their olive-oil lamps. At the same time, Greece, which was badly mauled by two invasions and a Communist-led civil war, will have electricity to operate the machine tools and irrigation pumps that will power new factories, water old fields, help give the country a higher standard of living.

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