Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-01-04
ARKANSAS LIGHT AND POWER C0. DOUBLES CAPACITY
l$35O,0O0 is Being Spent at the
 \ Local Plant of the UtiI- \ ity Company

1he Arkansas Light and Power
 company's improvements on it's X plant here will be in operation by March l, doubling the capacity, it
 Twas announced yesterday. ss The mprovements, which involve gan expenditure aggregating S35O,- &OOO Will insure maximum service to sall of the properties served from Pine Bluff, which include the Lon yoke and Stuttgart rice fields and \ the lighting plants of half dozen small Arkansas towns, as well as Ethe light, power and transporta- Ntion facilities for Pine Bluff. q On this date the company will #begln the exclusive use of oil and Egas for fuel, holding coal in re, serve for emergencies.
 Officials of the company in- cldentally announced yesterday that the changes would make the gpower generated here four times s as great as it was in 1917 when $the Arkansas Light and Power scompany took over the Pine aBluA' Scompany's plant here and made if the distributing power center for this section of Arkansas. The maximum power now gene rated here is 5000 XIV. 2,5O0 of this being in constant use. and the other 50 per cent being. held in reserve. The new additions will permit a total power of 10000 XIV, 50 per cent of which will be held in reserve.
 Supply Big Circuit. Work has been under way on the Improvements for some time They include:
 One GOO h. D. boiler at $45O00. One 5000 XIV. turbo generator at S125.0OC
 One 50O,O0o gallon oil tank at $12.OOO.
 One cooling pond cold well and circulation system and accessories at $40 900.
 One switch house at $20 900. Engineering fees, construction work, auxiliaries, etc., will run the grand total of expe- ditures on this work up to $350,000 or per haps larger.
 The Pine Bluff power plant now supplies one of the largest cir
 cults in this section of the coun- try. Besides the power, water, light and transportation given
 here, Stuttgart. including the rice
 fields, Wabbaseka, Humhpreys, and Altheimer are included on one
 branch. On another are Lonoke the Lonoke rice fields. Tucker.
 sherill. Ferda and England. And
 on a third are Scotts, the board
 of control farm, and the line
 which supplies Little Rock houses
 when the load is light here, This
 arrangement having been effected
 some time ago, in consideration of
 power from the Little Rock end
 when the load is heavy here, due
 to rice harvesting.
 Crops Feature.
 In one respect the new develop
 ment of the Arkansas Light and
 Power company is unique, the di-
 versity of two big crops in this
 section-cotton and rice being a
 factor in this development. The rice harvesting at which high pow
 CT is required, comes at time
 when no power is required for cot
 ton ginning and cotton seed oil
 purposes. The rice season is fo'-
 lowed by cotton and then by cot
 ton seed operations thus giving a
 maximum amount of service with
 a minimum amount of power
 consumption rotating power con-
 sumption.
 The construction work at the
 power plant is being accomplished
 by the removal of temporary walls
 and the enlargement of the build
 ing. The oil tank, which sup
 plants the tank cars which now stand on spurs until the oil is \ Withdrawn and the cooling nono are being erected just across th% Fourth avenue tracks on Ast street. The present cooling pond Just west of the power plant, lS to he abandoned.
 The oil tank, in reality, will De a concrete top, side and bottom fireproof basin, 85 bv 125 feet and six feet deep. The coolIne pond. also of concrete, will be 24t by l50 feet and will have an aver