The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1924-12-11
GREAT NORTHERN
POWER CONTRACT
Skowhegan Madison
Lines being Revamped
To Improve Service in Madison and
Vicinity. Better Industrial Con-
dltiOns North OF Sk0Whegan

Industrial and residential power
and light users in Madison, Anson
and surrounding towns will benefit
greatly from the contract which Cen
trail Maine Power Company has re-
Gently closed with the Great Northern
Paper Company at Madison. The
Great Northern Company. because of
water shortage at their local station,
has contracted with Central Maine for
1900 horse power to be furnished from
the Weston Station at Skowhegan.
Revamping the transmission lines
over 13 miles of system between
Skowhegan and Madison to accom-
modate the increased voltage required
has already been started. Insulators
on the present $500 volt line from
Lakewood Jet to Madison are being
changed to provide for $4,000 volts
capacity for the new contract
Prevailing low water conditions on
the Kennebec this fall have not fur
nlshed sufficient power to keep all the
grinders and heaters at the Madison
plant of the Great Northern Paper
Co. in operation. Before the last
rains swelled the volume of the river
at this point the plant was running
only one of its four generators. Pro-
duction from the pulp grinders was so
curtailed that thu Company was inn
porting pulp from dhe plant at Milli-
nocket to keep it's M auison mill run
ming. .,i -tR bin taf fe9 - Is
The new contract will make the
pulp haul from Milllnocket unneees-
'sary. and insure steatlier local pro-
auction. aThe power from Skowhe-
gan will not operate the motors con-
,nected with tho grinders now operat-
ed from the Great Northern's power
station, because they are 40 cycle
type New motors of 90 cycle type
will be installed to operate on the fire.
quency of the Central Maine Power
Company system.
The Great Northern Paper Company
will take only fraction of the power
available by the new transmission
lines for Madison and vicinity. At
the present time the Madison village
corporation takes 500 kVA for local
consumption. This is the full Capa
city of the $500 volt line now being
revamped to $4,000 volts. The new
line will render it possible for other
industries to be supplied with power
and meet the steadily increasing To-
cal demand
The Great Northern contract for
power calls for twentv-four hour ser
vice for period of two years from
March /. 1925 The new TRANSMITS
sion will nccessitatc the installation
of some new equipment at the Show
hogan plant and will involve setting
up about do poles Of new line from
outside the town of Madison across
the river. wherc new substation is
TO be built near the present Great
Northern Paper Company's power
station From the new substatiOn a
2200 volt line will extend across the
bridge to the present substation at
Madison.
Service to Madison power and light
consumers will be greatly improved
by the increased voltage OF the trans
mission lines. The growth of local
industries, as epideneed by the in
creased demand for power at the
Great Northern Paper Company, has
prompted the Central MainC Power
Company to make its capacity for pow
er much greater than the immediate
ply future contracts on short notice.
General demand for hydro-electric
power north of Skowhegan, in the
vicinity of Bingham and Guilford, as
we'll as at Madison, has prompted the
Central Maine Power Company to al
ready increase the voltage capacity OF
its lines as far as Lakewood Jet.
where three parallel lines north from
the Weston Station separate
The Bingham and Guilford trans
mission lines are interconnectcd at
Lakewood, and the Madison line can
be interconnected to the other two
systems so that power in any one of
the three directions can be transmit
ted over any of the other two lines.
The steadily growing consumption
of power in the vicinity of Skowhegan
prompted w. S. Wyman, president of
the Central Maine Power Company, to
make the statement at recent Cham
her of Commerce meeting in Portland,
that by the summer of 1925 the entire
output of the Skowhegan plant would
at times be required to meet the in
dustrial demands for power and light
purposes around Skowhegan and
towns IN the northWard.