|
|


|
|
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.

Greenville's
Community-Owned
Electric, Cable TV & High Speed Internet Provider
6000
Joe Ramsey Blvd.
Greenville, Texas 75402
(903) 457-2800
Fax (903) 457-2893
Copyright © 2000-
GEUS
All rights reserved
This page designed and maintained by
Word Works
Please report any problems to Webmaster
|