Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-02-25
The
Rambler
4. Leorns About
City's Cos Supply
BY GEORGE KENNEDY

Mindful that the Wash
ington Gas Light Co. had hit
a new peak in last weeks
cold wave, and not unmind-
full that the same probably
had happened to his gas bill,
the Rambler walked over to
the company's building at
Eleventh and H streets NV.
yesterday.
There he met bald and
genial Jim Boothby, the
president; Herbert Gill, veter-
an vice president, whose as
Segment includes public
relations, and Don Bittinger,
up-and-coming vice presi-
dent.
During last summers heat
wave, the Rambler wrote a
column he thought was in
tereSting about PEPCO's
hitting new peaks because of
air-conditioning.
The Washington Gas Light
Co.'S annual chart of volume
is more traditional. AS in
years gone by, the peaks of
volume are in the winter.
The 1857 peak was 302 mil
lion cubic feet of gas sent
out in one day.
On Sunday, February 9, the
company put out S21 million
cubic feet and thought that
would be the 1858 peak.
ION MONDAY, February
IT," Mr.. Bittinger said, gas
flowed through our pipes in
unprecedented volume. From
7 am. to 2 pm, we were
putting out a steady volume
of II million feet an hour.
Our previous hourly peaks
were from Is to IA mil
lion feet.
In that period, the tenn
perature went up from S
above to Is above. But the
demand for gas was greater
than our charts indicate
even for such low tempera-
lures. The added variable
in the equation was the wind.
1t was blowing from IS to 80
miles an hour and taking
heat out of the houses al
most as fast as the furnaces
could provide it,"
Ordinarily when a cold
front hits Washington, the
cities to the west along the
pipe line of the supplier are
experiencing rising tempera-
lures and no longer demand
ing peak loads. But this
continuing storm was cauS-
ing increased demand every
where east of the Rockies.
For a time, Atlanta was in
danger of low pressure that
would let many furnaces go
out. Washington was never
in such danger.
IN SITUATIONS LIKE
THIS, the distributing COM
panieS start playing a little
game called peak shaving"
with their supplier.
While the gas from the
pipelines is metered, dis
tributing companies do not
buy like the householder who
pays for the volume of gas he
has taken in. The distribut-
Ing company contracts for a
maximum daily amount. The
local gas company's contract
with its Supplier, Atlantic
Seaboard Corp, a subsidiary
of Columbia Gas, is for a
peak load of 29O million feet
a day.
Despite full production OF
the manufacturing plant
1865 million feet a day. and
withdrawal of 38 million feet
from storage at Rockville, the
company had to ask the
supplier for 10 million feet
of emergency" gas, which
the supplier had to buy in
turn. The price will be COM
puted later. But before the
day was over, the company
here had taken in IA million
feet of emergency" gas.
Now that figure, 304 million
feet, the amount of gas OBJ
tanned from the supplier or
February II, 1858, is going tc
be a very important figure
in renegotiating the contract
with the supplier. How i'm
portant can be seen from
this: The contractual rate
for each l million feet Ca
pacity peak is $4,000. II
Washington Gas Light has tC
contract for a 300-million.
cubic-foot peak, that will
bring its contractual pay.
ment to Atlantic Seaboard tt
just over $40 million a year
Extras will still be extra.
New customers may be
able to offset this added
charge. Let's hone so. Wash