Reprint of Municipal Utilities Magazine

June 1928

GREENVILLE MUNICIPAL PLANT PERMITS LOW RATES

Efficiently Operated Steam Plant, Burning Texas Lignite, at Greenville, Texas, Nets Large Profit Annually, Yet Consumers Enjoy Very Low Rates.

The keynote of this successful municipally-owned plant was struck fourteen years ago by the then new superintendent, Mr. H. L. McLow. When told by the Commissioner of Utilities that he could have so much for lubricating oil, so much for cotton waste, so much for this, that, and the other, he said: "There will be no such thing. If you want me to run that plant, I will have all I need for things like that. I will not spend a penny that I do not have to, but I must have as much as I need." Today, the part of that plant devoted to electric generation is valued at $500,000, all bought and paid for out of its earnings, and there is now on hand more than enough to buy a new one thousand horsepower boiler and mechanical stoker, to burn Texas lignite.

In spite of this, the maximum rate charged domestic consumers for current is only 7 cents per KWH, the rate being graduated downward, which is a very low rate. For the power users, a rate of 4 cents downward is in effect.

The present plant, located a mile and a half north of town on the Sabine River, is steam-equipped throughout, using, under normal conditions, one of two large steam turbines.

In 1906, Captain Joseph H. Nichols was elected Mayor on a platform specifically advocating municipal ownership of public utilities. Through his efforts, the city purchased the waterworks plant from its private owners for $92,500 and later increased its size with a $50,000 bond issue.

When the World War started, although Mayor Nichols was married and well past the draft limit, he joined the army again, and later came home with a new captain's commission, His people elected him mayor again and he held the office until 1924, when Mayor Thompson was elected. Mayor Thompson continued the policies of Ex-Mayor in regard to municipal ownership, and Mayor Nichols has recently been elected mayor for the fifth time.

After Mr. McLow remained superintendent of the light and water plant for four years, the citizens elected him as their Commissioner of Public Utilities, so for the ten years past he has been doing the work of both jobs, thus saving the salary of one official. At every election since, his majority of votes have increased, he being unopposed last time.

Fourteen years ago the plant consisted of the original plant at this location, built with $65,000 worth of bonds, and composed of two 300 H.P. Freeman boilers and two Allis-Chalmers 300 KWH Cross-compound Corliss engine and generator units. The annual gross receipts were from $65,000 to $75,000. Last year, the receipts were slightly in excess of $153,000, of which $43,000 were turned in to the sinking fund, in addition to that which was spent for maintenance, improvements, extensions, and betterment's. During the years 1918 to 1923, inclusive, Mr. McLow spent over $368,000 on improvements to the plant, out of earnings, when much of the time he was paying $4 per ton for lignite.

The present plant is very nicely arranged and the building houses both the electric plant and the water pumping plant. The electric plant, which is valued at a half million dollars, with only $23,000 in bonds outstanding against it (part of the original long term bonds for the first plant), consists principally of two latest type Curtiss-General Electric directly-connected steam turbine-generator units. One is rated at 1,250 KWH and the other a 500 KWH. The two old Allis-Chalmers Corliss engines and generators are kept as standby, and are frequently used at night for short periods. The plan of operation is simple, for during the day and up until midnight the 1,250 KWH turbine runs, and when the load falls off at night, the 500 KWH turbine is turned on to take its place until morning.

The steam requirements are met by any one or more of four boilers. The newest and largest on is a Casey-Hedges 2,020 H.P. Multi-Pass boiler. About ten years ago a Heine 500 H.P. was installed and the two original 300 H.P. Freemans are still in occasional service. Just at present, the addition of a new 1,000 H.P. boiler with mechanical stoker is contemplated.

The plant is very efficient, in spite of the fact that it is still hand-fired, instead of using pulverizers or stokers, as its fuel consumption is nine pounds of lignite per KWH produced, which includes coal for water pumping. The plant is delivering current on the switchboard for slightly less than 1 ¼ cents per KWH, including all the operating expense of the plant. The power factor will average 80 per cent over long periods of time. The peak load is near 1,400 KWH, 402,390 KWH being produced last January. Of this, 95,054 KWH went as free service to the city government, including the current for 3,200 street lights, the schools, parks, and libraries. Other departments of the city government are not charged, even on the books, with the current that they use.

The City of Greenville also has erected and owns nearly seventy-five miles of electric lines to nearby towns. It supplies, among others, the towns of Merritt and Floyd, each over twenty miles away, in different directions, with current at 9 ½ cents per KWH.

Under the same roof is housed the water plant, It consists of three pumps and accessory equipment, and the system is valued, not including the new reservoirs and settling basins, at $250,000. The first pump installed was a 2,000,000-gallon Buffalo engine driven pump.

In later years there have been installed one 3,000,000-gallon Campbell-Kerr turbine driven centrifugal pump and one 2,000,000-gallon Prescott pump.

The method of accounting for the expenses of the two connected systems is by means of a proratio of two-thirds for the electric plant and one-third for the water plant.

The other one of the three utilities owned by Greenville is their sewage system. It consists, in addition to the clay-pipe system of drainage over the city, of one injector station to facilitate the lifting of the sewage over a hill outside the city and a disposal plant, located several miles away. Sewage rates for homes are $5 per year, and for business houses, $6. While taxes are voted to retire the bonds for the sewage system, a surplus of about $7,500 is created each year in this account, in addition to repairs and operation. We see in Greenville just what a municipally-owned and operated plant can save the consumers and the citizens. Using the load of January, the domestic consumers were actually saved through the lower bills for electric service they received, as compared to cities in this territory where there are no municipal plants, at least $14,350. The prevailing rate for current in that part of Texas, if there is no municipal plant, will average about 14 cents; and this estimate of saving is made assuming that two-thirds of the current sold was to the domestic consumer, and he did not use as much current as is required to obtain the first reduction, and thus paid 7 cents per KWH for all his current. This is not considering what the City of Greenville is saved on its current, what the power consumer is saved, what the business men make on the $6,000 monthly payroll in the water and light department, nor what the plant earns each year, and this is the savings during only one month. The electric plant has an approximate earning value of over $50,000 per year.

Truly this is a record achievement to be proud of and is a testimonial to what efficient operation can do.