Evening star., 1925-01-13
CHEAPER ELECTRIC
CURRENT FORECAST
Record Output to Be Made
Still Greater-ImmenSe
Projects Under Way.
ny j.. G. ROYLE.

special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, January lS.-Pro-
duction of electric power in this
country now is about at the highest
point ever known. Nevertheless cen
tral stations arc adding tremendous
~ TO their facilities to care for an
even greater demand. Power is be-
ing produced at the rate of approx
imately 100000, 900 kilowatt hours
a month and the corporations en-
gagged in this industry have raised
100000, 900 in the last year to add
to extensions and additions of gen
Grating and distributing equipment.
Some of the largest plants ever
built will be put into commission
during the present year and an enor-
nous volume of new construction
will be started.
Cheaper Current Seen.
This volume of production, accord
ing to power experts, points to cheap
er current, since the increased use
of electricity by consumers has flat
tened out the peak load each station
must prepare to meet. This has
come about because the year 1924
brought comparatively small in
crease in peak load compared with
1928 when 100000 new customers
were added to the lines. The added
use of current resulted from in
creased requirements for transpor-
tation, industrial and domestic pur-
poses other than lighting.
Domestic Demand Expands.
Extreme Importance is attached To
domestic use of current by central
stations company executives in pre-
pairing for the current year. Nearly
| thousand customers a day were
added to electric service lines in New
York State in the last year NJ. :.
Sloan, president of the Brookly Ed
| ison Co, said today. "and 100000
| 600 kilowatt hours of electricity were
| used. In every house equipped for
| electric service there is a potential
| saving of years Of hard service
| through use of washing machines,
vacuum cleaners and q. dozen other
modern appliances"
Charles E. Dubois, president Of the
Western Electric Co, in discussing
| the fact that the corporation had
| broken all records last year by sales
| totaling 100000, 900, said that much
of this business had been due to or
| ders for telephones, but that while
he expected smaller orders of this
sort in 1925, he anticipated a greater
| volume of business in household
| equipment, due to the steadily in
creasing use Of electrical products.
Several Huge Projects.
| Virtually every section of the Ma
tion has new hydro-electric plants
| this year. The Wilson Dam plant at
| Muscle Shoals will be finished in Sep
| tember. Two other tremendous
plants on which work will be pushed
are tho San Joaquin River projects
| of the Southern California Edisozf
Company and the Conowingo Dam of
the Susquehanna Power Company, in
| Maryland.
The building of these and other
plants has necessitated the develop
ment of many electrical engineering
| features. Among these are unique
meters for measuring use of current
for different purposes, including the
| kilovolt ampere meter and the watt
hour meter. New methods of driv-
ing steel mills, rubber mills, paper
mills and of drilling for oil by cleo
tricity have been devised. Elevator
equipment has been perfected which
will allow of a speed of 1000 feet
a minute. The domestic fiat iron has
not been neglected and may now have
its heat regulated automatically by
thermostatic control.