The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1952-07-25
Parkinson Looks At
Wheeling Contracts
~ r. J. PARKINSON. ct. F

1t perhaps should not be surprising
that the general public has not the
slightest conception or understanding
of the many factors that enter into
the generation, transmission, admins
tration, and sale of electric power. II
is also so complex a subject that even
the most highly trained electrical tech
nician does not know all of 1t.
Just the generation of power at the
power plant is the smallest part OF
the consumers cost. In fact, If there
was no charge at all for power at the
bus bar the difference in cost to the
customer would be negligible. This
would be true whether the power was
generated at a Government or a prl-
vate corporation plant About 2 y mills
or one-quarter of a cent per klloWatt
hour would cover it.
The principal cost of power to the
consumer is the cost of transmission,
line loss operation and maintenance of
transmission lines, taxes on them and
interest on the investment. Also de-
probation and obsolescense. To all this
muse be added the cost of doing bust
ness. such as providing numerous Of
fices and stating them, reading of
meters, preparing and mailing of state
ments, and related book work.
All these costs are the same, whether
done by the Government or anybody
else. Since the cost of Government
built power plants average from to
times that of private companies, 1T
should be obvious that there is no
such thing as cheap Government pow
err" That is a phrase that seems to
have gained credence without justlf1-
cation. Of course, the Government pays
no taxes to the communities in which
it operates, for the maintenance of To-
cal government. schools, roads, etc, and
pays no interest on the money 1t has
confiscated from the people in form
of taxes to build its plants. The loss
of taxes to the communities in which
Government power plants and tranmis-
sion lines operate, is a very substan-
tial part of the cost of power, even
though it does not appear on the con-
sumers monthly statement.
In Cascade county alone, the Montana
Powers property tax for 1851 was near !
" half million dollars, or about /
one-ninth of all property taxes levied |
in the county Their total tax paid to |
federal, state and local governments |
for 1851 was more than S8,600000
There has been great deal of ad-
verse criticism of the Wheeling Con-
tract for the power generated at the
Canyon Ferry Dam In my opinion that
was one action by the Bureau of Rec
lamation, that was most beneficial for
all the people, as I will attempt to
show Before 1 go into that, let US state
a few more facts.
% To date it has been found i'm
practical to transmit electrical power
much more than 400 miles at 100000
volts, except small amounts in emer-
gencies.
% Line loss is not something just
or indefinite. II is very
definite and real and can be precisely
within substantiallysless than
/ %, when certain factors are known.
These are length of line, size of
cables, kind of cable material, voltage,
and amount of power to be transmitted.
A recent statement in your publica-
ton to the effect that 1T seems that
the Government gives this power
whether there is a line loss or not"
indicates a complete lack of knowledge
Of the subject. There is always a line
loss when power is being transmitted
even for only one foot. A good illus
tration of this is the fact that in cities,
a transformer is usually to be found
in every block.
The reason for this is that the low
voltages of 110-220 volts can be trans
mitted only a few hundred feet without
a prohibitive drop in voltage which is
lust another way of saying Zine loss"
CD The cost of a transmission line
depends on the factors l have men
toned previously. To illustrate, let us
consider transmission line constructed
to transmit a certain amount of power
80 miles, at a certain voltage, with a
maximum permissible line loss of say
so. Compare the cost of this line
With one to deliver the same power 100
niles or twice the distance, with the
anne line loss of 1917. The size of cable |
r weight of copper would have to be
Dubbed. The length of line is also |
Dubbed. SO the cost of the line is in
reased 4 times.
To construct a transmission line 400 |
tiles in length, to transmit the same