Page:EB1911 - Volume 09.djvu/217

 the diversity factor, also the situation of the power house, the means of distribution, and the provision of suitable, trustworthy and efficient plant. These factors become more favourable the larger the area and the greater and more varied the demand to be supplied. Generally speaking, as the output increases so the cost per unit diminishes, but the ratio (called the load factor) which the output during any given period bears to the maximum possible output during the same period has a very important influence on costs. The ideal condition would be when a power station is working at its normal maximum output continuously night and day. This would give a load-factor of 100%, and represents the ultimate ideal towards which the electrical engineer strives by increasing the area of his operations and consequently also the load and the variety of the overlapping demands. It is only by combining a large number of demands which fluctuate at different times—that is by achieving a high diversity factor—that the supplier of electricity can hope to approach the ideal of continuous and steady output. Owing to the dovetailing of miscellaneous demands the actual demand on a power station at any moment is never anything like the aggregate of all the maximum demands. One large station would require a plant of 36,000 k.w. capacity if all the demands came upon the station simultaneously, but the maximum demand on the generating plant is only 15,000 kilowatts. The difference between these two figures may be taken to represent the economy effected by combining a large number of demands on one station. In short, the keynote of progress in cheap electricity is increased and diversified demand combined with concentration of load. The average load-factor of all the British electricity stations in 1907 was 14.5%—a figure which tends to improve.

Several electric power supply companies have been established in the United Kingdom to give practical effect to these principles. The Electric Lighting Acts, however, do not provide for the establishment of large power companies, and special acts of parliament have had to be promoted to authorize these undertakings. In 1898 several bills were introduced in parliament for these purposes. They were referred to a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament presided over by Lord Cross. The committee concluded that, where sufficient public advantages are shown, powers should be given for the supply of electricity over areas including the districts of several local authorities and involving the use of exceptional plant; that the usual conditions of purchase of the undertakings by the local authorities did not apply to such undertakings; that the period of forty-two years was “none too long” a tenure; and that the terms of purchase should be reconsidered. With regard to the provision of the Electric Lighting Acts which requires that the consent of the local authority should be obtained as a condition precedent to the granting of a provisional order, the committee was of opinion that the local authority should be entitled to be heard by the Board of Trade, but should not have the power of veto. No general legislation took place as a result of these recommendations, but the undermentioned special acts constituting power supply companies were passed.

In 1902 the president of the Board of Trade stated that a bill had been drafted which he thought “would go far to meet all the reasonable objections that had been urged against the present powers by the local authorities.” In 1904 the government introduced the Supply of Electricity Bill, which provided for the removal of some of the minor anomalies in the law relating to electricity. The bill passed through all its stages in the House of Lords but was not proceeded with in the House of Commons. In 1905 the bill was again presented to parliament but allowed to lie on the table. In the words of the president of the Board of Trade, there was “difficulty of dealing with this question so long as local authorities took so strong a view as to the power which ought to be reserved to them in connexion with this enterprise.” In the official language of the council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the development of electrical science in the United Kingdom is in a backward condition as compared with other countries in respect of the practical application to the industrial and social requirements of the nation, notwithstanding that Englishmen have been among the first in inventive genius. The cause of such backwardness is largely due to the conditions under which the electrical industry has been carried on in the country, and especially to the restrictive character of the legislation governing the initiation and development of electrical power and traction undertakings, and to the powers of obstruction granted to local authorities. Eventually The Electric Lighting Act 1909 was passed. This Act provides:—(1) for the granting of provisional orders authorizing any local authority or company to supply electricity in bulk; (2) for the exercise of electric lighting powers by local authorities jointly under provisional order; (3) for the supply of electricity to railways, canals and tramways outside the area of supply with the consent of the Board of Trade; (4) for the compulsory acquisition of land for generating stations by provisional order; (5) for the exemption of agreements for the supply of electricity from stamp duty; and (6) for the amendment of regulations relating to July notices, revision of maximum price, certification of meters, transfer of powers of undertakers, auditors’ reports, and other matters.

The first of the Power Bills was promoted in 1898, under which it was proposed to erect a large generating station in the Midlands from which an area of about two thousand square miles would be supplied. Vigorous opposition was organized against the bill by the local authorities and it did not pass. The bill was revived in 1899, but was finally crushed. In 1900 and following years several power bills were successfully promoted, and the following are the areas over which the powers of these acts extend:

In Scotland, (1) the Clyde Valley, (2) the county of Fife, (3) the districts described as “Scottish Central,” comprising Linlithgow, Clackmannan, and portions of Dumbarton and Stirling, and (4) the Lothians, which include portions of Midlothian, East Lothian, Peebles and Lanark.

In England there are companies operating in (1) Northumberland, (2) Durham county, (3) Lancashire, (4) South Wales and Carmarthenshire, (5) Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, (6) Leicestershire and Warwickshire, (7) Yorkshire, (8) Shropshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, (9) Somerset, (10) Kent, (11) Cornwall, (12) portions of Gloucestershire, (13) North Wales, (14) North Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire, (15) West Cumberland, (16) the Cleveland district, (17) the North Metropolitan district, and (18) the West Metropolitan area. An undertaking which may be included in this category, although it is not a Power Act company, is the Midland Electric Corporation in South Staffordshire. The systems of generation and distribution are generally 10,000 or 11,000 volts three-phase alternating current.

The powers conferred by these acts were much restricted as a result of opposition offered to them. In many cases the larger towns were cut out of the areas of supply altogether, but the general rule was that the power company was prohibited from supplying direct to a power consumer in the area of an authorized distributor without the consent of the latter, subject to appeal to the Board of Trade. Even this restricted power of direct supply was not embodied in all the acts, the power of taking supply in bulk being left only to certain authorized distributors and to authorized users such as railways and tramways. Owing chiefly to the exclusion of large towns and industrial centres from their areas, these power supply companies did not all prove as successful as was expected.

In the case of one of the power companies which has been in a favourable position for the development of its business, the theoretical conclusions in regard to the economy of large production above stated have been amply demonstrated in practice. In 1901, when this company was emerging from the stage of a simple electric lighting company, the total costs per unit were 1.05d. with an output of about 2 million units per annum. In 1905 the output rose to over 30 million units mostly for power and traction purposes, and the costs fell to 0.56d. per unit.

An interesting phase of the power supply question has arisen in London. Under the general acts it was stipulated that the power-house should be erected within the area of supply, and