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Faxes 'THE HAILEYBURIAN THURSDAY, MAY _4th, 1933 i > i se HIGH VOLTAGE TRANSMISSION LINE € SF \ o& & CS es Sw se ¢ S PRIMARY LINE N if as TRANSMISSION TOWER és s v. ¢ "A ae ~" - a = gS Gi Stas DISTRIBUTION I ( --~ p | ( 4 7 TRANSFORMER FN I. P A, ATL SMP AS SADA aul PU marc led All WATER TURBINE, = ia SS a i WATER DISCHARGE GENERATION TRANSMISSION I DISTRIBUTION | L 7% of the Consumer's Cost 14% of the Consumer's Cost d 79% of the Consumer's Cost J HOW THE COST OF ELECTRICITY AT YOUR HOME IS MADE UP To arrive at a proper conception of the power whose plants are close to the power station, while situation in the North, or anywhere else, it is another may supply a multitude of consumers necessary to understand various factors which enter spread over remote areas. With a company serving ; an extensive mining district the expense of trans- ee ESS SONY © See. Mite' Cee oe mission and distribution rapidly assumes propor- tric power with other commodities, such as wheat tions which greatly exceed the cost of producing or potatoes. Some think that if energy can be sold power. The experiences of a large number of power | in one place at a certain price it can be sold at the producers have made it possible, though, to arrive , | same price in* another. at an average proportion of the total cost, as illus- In order to show the fallacy of some ideas, a trated above. knowledge of the true items of the cost of power In the industry a clear distinction is made _be- is necessary. tween transmission costs and distribution costs. The first term is applied to the stystem of transmis- sion lines over which power that has been stepped up to a high voltage in order to avert excessive line loss is conducted from the generating station to the sub-station which acts as a distributing centre. Where power has to be sent long distances, as in the North, voltage has to be stepped up very high, en- tailing the installation of heavy and expensive trans- formers as well as costly lines adapted to such higher voltages. At the other end costly transformers and sub-stations are required to step down the power. The first item is by no means the greatest. It is the cost of generation. It is divided into two parts, one consisting of interest on the capital involved in the plant, the dams, etc., and it is an item often en- tirely overloooked by the layman. It is a variable avr item, too, for the question of market for power en- ters in. For instance, assuming for argument's sake that a 10,000 h.p. plant can be built for a million dollars, it follows that interest on this amount must be met whether the plant is running part time or full capacity. Assuming that there is a market for full capacity of 10,000 h.p., the cost of this item It is at this point that the heavy expenses of dis- alone would be $5 per h.p., assuming further that tribution begin to mount up? for in order to serve money could be borrowed at such a rate. the residents of a town many poles, lines and trans- formers must be provided in order to deliver the small quantity of electricity used in an ordinary house. 'These lines require to be maintained in all kinds of weather, against the ravages of sleet, wind and lightning and ordinary decay. Even after the line has been brought to the street in front of the However, such an ideal combination of capacity and market is almost an impossibility, and often a power company must be content to run a plant at half capacity, in which instance the interest cost runs up to $10 a h.p. Then in respect of the capital cost in the gener- customer's house the expense has not ended. Service , ating of power is the second point that money must wires must be installed, a meter provided and _ this be set aside each year against the depreciation of the meter read periodically. Offices must be maintained plant and its eventual renewal, and against the re- for the preparation of bills and collection of accounts tirement of the initial capital. The power plant that serves a big city may continue in undiminished operation for fifty or one hundred years. It is plain that the power plant which serves a mining field . may be in an altogther different category. By the time all these items are added together an impartial observer will see that there are a host of costs which cannot be avoided and are never sus- "# pected by the layman. The actual cost of generating power is only a We had almost overlooked the matter of taxes small proportion of the total incurred by the time --where the power supplier pays taxes. 'This the customer takes delivery. In practice the ratios company last year paid taxes at the rate of a thou- vary, as one company may serve a few large users sand dollars a day. Canada Northern Power Corporation Limited Controlling and Operating Northern Ontario Power Company, Limited Northern Quebec Power Company, Limited