The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-06-12

listing contract between the Public
Service Company of st. Cloud and
the City of Sank Centre by which
the Water, Light and Power Com
mission purchased electrical energy
from the St. Cloud plant for pc
per Kwhr., delivered on the switch
board in Sank Centre, will expire,
and the time is rapidly approaching
when the Water, Light and Power
Commission must arrive at a con-
clusion as to whether to continue
purchasing the current from the st.
Cloud organization or whether they
will add sufficient additional units
to the municipal plant in this city to
manufacture the electrical energy in
Sank Centre and sell it direct to the
consumer.
In the negotiations up to the
present time between the Light and
Power Commission and the Public
Service Company, the latter corpor-
alton have demanded a higher rate
than is called for under the existing
contract. The lowest offer received
to date has been 2.75c per Kwhr., a
material increase.
The purchasing of electrical cur
rent is very technical proposition
and in order that the Light and
Power Commission may be fully
equipped to handle the situation, they
employed the Charles l.. Pillsbury
Company, engineers of Minneapolis
and st. Paul, to go over the entire
proposition in Sank Centre. Their
report which was recently submitted
to the Commission, tailed almost
identically with report made out by
John N. McGibbon, Superintendent
OF the local plant. The purpose of
the Pillsbury investigation was to
determine the advisability of contin-
Jung the present practice Of purchas-
ing electrical energy from the St.
Cloud Public Service Company, or
to put into operation the present
Diesel oil engine plant, rehabiliating
and charging the local plant suffice
lently to generate electricity there
from for all city requirements.
1t will be recalled that the present
generating station was put in opera
ton in May, 1917 and operated until
December, 1919. The present plant
consists of two 14x21 inch. two
cylinder, fourstroke, cycle, horizontal
full Diesel oil engines, directly con-
nected to two LOG X. V. A. Aliis-
Chalmers 1900 volt, three-phase, go
cycle generators and other necessary
equipment.
On December I, 1919, contract
was entered into with the st. Cloud
Public Service Company for sup
ply of all electrical energy from a
$4,000 volt, three phase transmits
sion line. At that time the primary
reason for shutting down the plant
and purchasing electrical energy,
was. because the exhaust from the
engines caused a sympathetic vibra-
ton in adjacent buildings which was
highly Objectionable. BY a change
in the relative position of the engine
cranks, this difficulty has been en-
tlrely overcome, and the engines now
operate singely or in parallel with
out undue noise or Objectionable vi
/ bration.
The contract with the St. Cloud
company was for a five year period,
the principle provisions of the con-
tract being a minimum charge of
/ $500 per month and the cost of the
energy was to be 2.2c per Kwhr, the
l
board of the city plant.
The service rendered by the Pub
lie Service Company has been salts
factory as far as voltage regulation
was concerned, but far from salts
factory as regards continuity of SER
vice. The records show that in 1921
there were 1872 Interruptions in
1922, PIG; in 1923, ISL; and for the
first three months in 1924, FL. The
result has been that it was necessary
for the Light and Power Commission
to maintain the local plant in readi-
4 ness to pick up the load whenever
the service was discontinued even
temporarily by the high line. The
local consumers have been given
good service and have not realized
the fact that at irregular intervals,
and for indefinite periods of time the
local plant has been called upon to
furnish the current to supply their
needs. The records further show
that the average length Of Interrupt
tons for the average 173 ines
| yearly, was 371s minutes, the high
/ line being down an average of about
108 hours per year. These con-
slant interruptions made it necessary
for the city of Sank Centre to main
tain an engineer at the local plant at
all hours Of the day and night, seven
days per week. The commission were
fortunate in securing two men to
handle this work-each man operat-
/ ing on twelve hour shift.
There has been a constant increase
in the use Of electrical energy in
Sank Cetre and if the city decides
to take over the manufacture of the
electrical energy used by the con-
sumers Of this city, it will be nee
essary to materially increase the To-
cal plant as the equipment owned by
the city at the present time is made
quate to carry the peak load. This
peak load averages about five hours
out of twenty-four, daily.
The Pillsbury engineers have esti-
mated that the cost for this city for
a period of from seven to ten years,
would be $4,000.