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Show COST OF ELECTRIC POWER. California cities are calling for a reduction in the price of electric power and a Los Angeles authority says that last week the lighting-company lighting-company that supplies Vallejo offered by way of compromise to reduce re-duce rates from 11 cents to 8 cents per kilowatt hour. In Los Angeles Ang-eles tho city council fixed the rate at 7 cents per kilowatt hour and mo people on a referendum vote have confirmed the ordinance. In Pasadena and Riverside much lower rates than these prevail. Some interesting facts concerning electric light and power companies are supplied by E. F. Scattergood, the engineer in charge of the L03 Angeles aqueduct electrical power development in a statement recently re-cently issued by him. Mr. Scattergood wrote : "In accordance with the sworn statement of th Edison company to the Los Angeles city council, its average cost of generation, allowing allow-ing 6 per cent interest on the value of its property, as given in said sworn statement, is 1.445 cents per kilowatt hour; its average selling price to railways is 0.722 cent per kilowatt hour; the amount of energy sold by it within the city limits during the yeear 1909 for light and commercial power, exclusive of railways, was 16, 964,265, and the amount of energy sold to railroads during the same year was 26,-128,012 26,-128,012 kilowatt hours. In other words, approximately 60 per cent of the electrical energy sold by the Edison company in the city during dur-ing 1909 was sold to railway companies at approximately one-half the average cost of generation, in accordance with their own sworn statement. Selling 60 per cent of their generated energy at 0.722, while the average generated cost i3 1.445, makes it necessary to charge a generating cost of 2.530 cents per kilowatt hour against the remaining remain-ing 40 per cent ; in other words, a price about three and a half times that charged to the railway companies, in order to make a proper showing on the generating side of their business. "It is true that the generated cost of electrical energy for the lighting business is about 1 1-3 to 1 1-2 times the generating cost for the railway business because of the difference in the character of the load, but this is very different from 3 1-2 times pointed out above as' the condition existing with the Edison company." |
