Power supply and Location of industries

Power is important in industry

• Almost all modern industries use electricity in their industrial process.
• This power can come from individual small stations of thermal, nuclear or hydro-origin in which case the industries must locate close to the sources of power.
• Modern trends have shown consolidation of power and supply through regional and national grid systems.
• In this case, it is efficiency and reliability of power supply which plays an important role in overall national industrial growth as well as costs, because industrialists lose business where power cuts are very regular or costs are high and they have to cushion themselves with provision of private generators.
• Industrialists shun to locate in developing countries for this reason where this utility is poorly run.
• Some industries consume so much power that they have to locate close to large supplies of it.
• Examples include the Valco aluminium smelters at Tema in Ghana near the Akosombo scheme,
• the Kitimat and Arvida projects in Canada or
• the pulp and paper mill on the southern edge of the Laurentian Shield in Canada.

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