Evening star., 1942-05-25
u. ). Power SHORTAGES
To Be Handled on
Regional Basis
Pools and Rotionins
Are Twin Ways Of
Meeting Crises
BY JAMES MARROW AND
WILLIAM PINKERTON,

Sacrifices l made to help win the
war" you might write in lightly, in
pencil, the word power"
Before the year is out Americans
in scattered areas will be learning
by doing without it, the basic role
OF electricity in the life of a modern
community.
The little savings in the home
may be voluntary. People will be
urged to cut down on the hot-water
heater, the vacuum cleaner, the ra-
dio, to keep home cooking and light
ing at minimum-especially dur
ing those critical peak load hours
from to 8 or 9 at night.
In public places power shortages
will force themselves on your at
tention - theater marques will
darken, streetcars may run unheat-
ed, show windows will black out,
Great White Way billboards will
dim, and night sports will disappear.
Any ingenious businessman who
has kept a non-essential non-war
plant in operation despite priorities,
conversion orders, manpower drains
and all may find power rationing the
final, killing blow.
Fall to Bring Curbs.
With the suns cooperation IN
lighting the land, and enough rain
to keep the hydro-electric rivers
flowing through the dams, we'll get
through the summer without any
extra fuss over power.
The fall and winter are another
story. Late summer often brings a
dry season that cuts down the out
put of water-power plants. The fall
will bring hundreds of new or con-
verted industrial plants into full
war production. many on 24-hour,
7-day basis OF course, the days
lengthen and the weather gets chill,
and housewives start lighting the
lamps before dinner and cooking
good, big, hot meals.
The power pinch, say War Pro-
duction Board experts. is likely to
squeeze such scattered regions as
the Southeast, the xas-Arkansas-
Louisiana triangle of the Southwest,
the rapidly growing industrial sec
ton around st. Louis, the Buffalo
Niagara area in New York State and
possibly the Pacific Northwest.
The people of the Southeast know
what 1t is like to run short on power
They did it year ago, and lived.
At that time, a hookup of power
lines of II States was devised to
feed electricity into the seven States
where a defense boom in industry
had run head on into a power cut
ting drought.
Consumption Restricted.
The Southeast weathered its pow
er shortage this way: BY connect
ing together the public utilities of
II States, and feeding power from
one system to another, more than
40, 900 900 kilowatt hours of electric
ity week was brought into the
shortage area. A blackout of non
essential lighting (signs, show win
dows, decorative lighting, flood
lights, etc. combined with voluntary
light saving in the homes saved
some 100000 kilowatt hours Of
electricity a week.
This illustrates the two sides of
any attack on power shortage
under w. P. BIS order L-94: Pool
ing Of power lines so that the max
imum supply of juice gets to the
power-short shops, and the ration
ing or curtailment of non-war uses
of electricity.
Remedies to Vary.
If power runs short in the months
to come, don't expect any national
panacea. Power people say short
ages will develop on a regional
basis and the remedies will vary
from place to place.
As precaution power lines al
ready are cutting across the old
feuding grounds between Govern
ment ownership and private owner
ship, linking together both kinds of
power for a single delivery to short
age centers in areas like the Pacific
Northwest, the Southeast and the
southwest.
When power runs short in places
these pool" wires connecting one
power system with another will
maintain the flow of electricity into
necessary war plants.
Other policies will depend on the
locality. In great residential CEN
tiers such as New York City, large
savings of power could be made
through the householders' cooper
alton. In heavily industrial centers,
where residence is a secondary item,
savings may require the cutting
down Of service to some non-war
industrial and commercial users,
and might even come to rationing
among war plants.