WORKS Year TABLE SHOWING (a) LOAD-FACTOR AND (b) UNITS USED IN DISTRIBUTION-PROVINCIAL UNDERTAKINGS Aberdeen 1898. From paper by R. Hammond, before Institution of Electrical Engineers, March 24th, From these tables there is another point to be learned, namely, the percentage of units generated that are unaccounted for. This percentage is even greater in gas companies, and it is interesting to watch the reports from year to year and to see the improvement in this matter. The Massachusetts report of all the gas companies of that state gives the exact number of feet unaccounted for in each company. These items, added together, in 1897 amounted to 285,000,000 feet. One gas company lost thirty-six per cent of its output, and quite a number over twenty per cent. The largest percentage of unaccounted-for units in the English electric stations generating over a million. units, appears to be twelve and one-half per cent. Load-factor, per cent Ratio of units used in distribution and unaccounted for to units generated, per cent Quite a number having an output of 500,000 units have thirty-three per cent. One station loses fortyseven per cent. These figures with respect to electric lighting are not comparable with gas, for the reason that we allow the larger portion of the loss as necessary to the distribution. I have no doubt but that a great saving may be made in our stations if attention is brought to this feature. To go back to the total cost per unit, we find, comparing again the English stations, as I have been unable to obtain such data on American stations: The following table by Hammond gives the best recorded cost for the years 1894, 1895 and 1896 in Great Britain. We find the cost of $5 per ton, and yet the been kept down in a great many plants to one cent. So far as I am advised, there is only one state in our Union which gives such data officially, namely, Massachusetts. coal varies from $3.50 to cost of fuel per unit has A very interesting report of one of the continental plants is that of the polyphase station of the Budapester Allgemeine Electricitäts Gesellschaft: *This station has been in operation since 1893. The electric light in Budapest is supplied by two large central stations, one working on the polyphase system and the other on the simple alternating system. The polyphase currents are transformed into continuous current by rotaries to 230 volts on the three-wire system. The station consists of six 300-kilowatt, two-phase generators driven by triple-expansion engines. The coal is Ostrauer nut, and makes 7.4 per cent refuse. On an average during the winter months the efficiency of the entire system is sixty-seven per cent. The results of the plant are given in the following table: Consumers pay twenty cents a unit for light and sixteen cents for power. *I give below the average cost of coal and contract price per arc lamp per year in about one thousand stations in the United States. No distinction in price per 2,000 or 1,200 candle power is made in averaging, account of the great variation in price; a 2,000candle-power lamp in one place with high-cost coal sometimes selling for less than a 1,200-candle-power with low-price coal. on |