Medan Electricity History

Medan History Power Failure and Electricty

Here’s a piece of History on Medan’s Electricity that I think even our governor does not know about. I received this email from our visitor – Donald Robin. Interestingly he found us online through the news of Medan Power failure which has traveled worldwide!

In the email is an interesting history about Medan, I have been given permission to publish his email here, please read on:

Hello there,

It’s been 70 years since I left Medan, Berastagi and all of Sumatra for higher education in Europe, but that is not my reason for contacting you people….

I’m 85 now and happened to browse on Google Maps….

to be informed that North Sumatra has a Power problem…..!!

Well…..

My dad built all the power stations from Medan up to Kota Radjasuch as Langsa, Idi, Lohsumawe, sigli, etc, in the ’30’s,including in Batak land, Berastagi near the Merapi

where I attended boarding school nat the PSV….

My dad was J.C.N. Van Loon, a dual(mech/elect) engineer…

He was welknown I’d say, as Carel van Loon of the NIGM,

so it wouldn’t be much of a problem to find people in and around Medan/Berastagi who still remember him, the tuan bezar Panlonand/or me, his son the tuan bezar muda by the name of “Donny”…

What I am surprised about is that whereas dad built the chain of hydro and diesel powered generators then rebuilt them after the jap war from absolute scrap from 1946 to ‘50, apparently those installations have been left to maintenance by the Gods….

with practically no human interference at all…..!!

Now this is utterly rediculous….

Over the years Indonesia has been supplied with millions if not billions of US$$ and NL Florines….

What happened to all that money ??

Did it vanish into the pockets of some hi-phelootin’ political compadres:- Bung Karno and others? or WHAT ??

It’s plum madness to put the blame on not having raised consumption rates….

Alright, so something gives and breaks down…. in time

But you guys have been having a pretty good time with gamelan, makanans, focky fock, etc. instead of tending to whatever you had or have to tend to….

Yes I’m mad….

My dad is gone…. for some 50 years now… he’s dead !!

Had he known about this fiasco he would turn endlessly in his mangrove grave.

He was the best mechanical/electrical engineer that I know of and Sumatra’s West Coast ever had…… and he built it all…

with his 4000 employees, whom he instructed and trained….

personally, physically…. if they didn’t know yet….

I know…… I am his numero uno son,

I’m a triple engineer MSME/EE from UCSD, MIT and ICT La Jolla, Ca.

a former Spitfire pilot, SQ LDR (OBE), RAF, Brittain, during WW2,

and ex Cdr USNavy, now retired….,

I was the Naval designer for all the big US carriers and subs….

and I used to be the designer for all chemical/oyl facilities for

Aramco (Saudi), Dow Chem (Holland, Germany, Chec Rep)

ICI (GB and Holland), Electricité General (Brussels/Toronto, Can)

and some of the North Sea platforms for BP and Shell…..

I am a born American, Navajo (Indian), as was my dad..

His true name:- John Carl Norris deValon-Donald….

(misspelled by the Dutch into Johan Carel Norris “van Loon”)

son of the 0ver 500 yrs long ancestry of French deValons (Hugonots)

and an Indian squaw of the Navajo tribe….a Donald….

Her dad was a skin hunter… buffalo, beaver, you name it..

P/S:- Dad had a second (indonesian) wife

by which one daughter (abt age 50 now) and twin sons….

They lived in Gloegoer….

I lost track of them since the early 1970’s

Maybe you people can trace them back to me…. Thanks..

PP/S:- I’m too old and feeble these days, at 85….

else would go back to Sumatra

and redo his work for only transportation cost,

lodging, food and beverages (booze)….

and claim back my dad’s property, the Jap shalet

and the bungalow below, up the hill road from the PSV….

in Berastagi, which were all burned down in the Bersiap time….

so I heard.. Just tell me who owns it now…..

Donald – deValon, Robin

Yes, Medan People and Businesses are all short of electricity and power, businesses and home owners suffers from electronics failure from the power failure. More and more Medanese are “self-powered” now by buying their own generators.

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