Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-05-09
DOUGHERTY SYSTEM
TO BE ADOPTED
Electric & Water Company Will
Adopt Most Equitable Method.

To those operating electric lighting
plants one of the most perplexing
problems has been to establish rate
that would be just to all patrons.
The flat rate" has been tried and
discarded, as both waSteful and IN
just to the best patrons. 1t is gener-
ally replaced by what is known as the
"meter SYSTEM" and under the meter
system, some plants charge uniform
rate per kilowat hour, both to large
and small users. Under this plan the
small users do not usually pay the
cost of the service, and they have to
be carried at the expense of the
larger users.
Some years ago a very thorough
analysis of the problem was made by
Mr.. Dougherty, of Madison, and he
adopted the principle that each user
of the service should pay the cost of
the service, and that no man should
be required to pay for, or contribute
to. the electric service received by
his neighbor.
He then computed the whole cost of
operating the plant, including in that
cost maintenance and depreciation,
with interest on the capital invested.
This cost he grouped under three
heads cost of the meter; the
cost of maintaining and reading the
meter; and the cost of keeping and
collecting the accounts of each patron,
as apart of the expense that should
be divided up among the several
patrons per capita, as this part of the
cost is the same for the large and the
small user.
A large item in the giving of
electric service is the cost of the fuel,
and this is exactly in proportion to
the amount of current produced, and
is divided among the several patrons
| in proportion to the amount of
kilowatS consumed as shown by the
meter. There is still third item of
expense to the maintenance of the
service, that is known as fixed, or de-
mand charges, which is divided among
the several patrons on the basis OF
their maximum demand. This per-
haps can be illustrated by an example
The company has two patrons. One
has Is lamps in his house the other
has $50 lamps. For these two patrons
the per capita charge first mentioned
above, would be the same, and the
reading of the meter shows that the
man with fifteen lamps uses as many
kilowatS during the year as the man
with $50 lamps. But in order to serve
all of the patrons the plant has to
carry a certain amount of fixed capital,
fixed help, and capacity sufficient to
meet the maximum demand, and the
man with the $50 lamps is occasionally
liable to call on the company to fur
niSh him sufficient current to operate
all of his lamps, and for this reason it
should appear clear that he should be
required to pay more than the man
whose maximum demand is fifteen
lights. Now this capacity to serve on
the part of the plant includes the cost
of the engine, boilers, dynamos, fire
men and engineers, and is and should
be distributed among the several
patrons in proportion to the maximum
demand of each.
The Electric Light Company in our
lefty at the last meeting of the direc-
tors, decided to complete the system
of putting all patrons on meter, and
this work will be completed before
the first of July next.
They have also decided in favor OF
the "Dougherty System" of rates,
which we have above explained, and
have for the present left it optional
with each customer to demand the
Dougherty system in making up the
cost of the service. After this system
has been accepted and approved by q
majority of the patrons, they then
expect to adopt the Dougherty system
throughout for all using electric
service.