COMMISSION ON ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK. June 19, 1905. Hon. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, Mayor, Chairman, Board of Estimate and Apportionment, Sir. The accompanying Report B gives the cost of construction and operation of a City electric plant, to supply all of the City lighting by electricity, to the entire exclusion of gas,-for streets, parks, public buildings and other public places. This plant built in accordance with these specifications will ensure service equal to or better than that now given. Including land, buildings and all equipment for a central station of a capacity of 15 000 kilowatts and a distributing system designed to supply 15 000 are lamps and 300 000 sixteen candle-power incandescent equivalents, the total cost will be $7 567 000. The total annual operating and fixed charges, including interest at 3.5 percent, depreciation at 6.0 percent, and all operating expenses, will be per year, $1 269 000. Neither the cost of building a duct system nor rentals to be paid the existing duct companies, is included in the estimates of construction and operating costs; these items are omitted under your instructions that the City has the right to use such duct space as it requires, free of rental. Subdividing the total annual cost into cost of supplying arc and incandescent lights, the annual cost per arc light will be $64.07, and the cost per kilowatt-hour for incandescent service will be 5.5 cents. The total cost of supplying the service contemplated in this report at the rates charged the City by the Edison Company, would be $2 750 000; the operation of this plant would therefore effect an annual saving of $1 481 000, equal to approximately 20 percent of the investment required. The total cost to the City of gas and electric lights for the last year, under the ruling rates, was $1 703 000; the operation of this plant would therefore effect a saving of $434 000 over the cost under existing conditions, that is, electric lighting can be substituted for gas both in the streets and in public buildings, and an annual saving of $434 000 be made. We believe that material reductions can be effected by the use of smaller units for street illúmination, and in particular, by the use of a Nernst lamp of the series type, replacing the Welsbach and other gas and naphtha lights unit for unit. This matter is as yet not sufficiently advanced to permit us to submit figures of the saving. Considerable saving in the cost of water pumping can be effected by the use of electricallydriven centrifugal pumps, in place of the steamdriven pumps, in all save the largest pumping plants. The estimates of the cost of construction and of operation included in this report, presuppose economy and skill equal to that shown in the conduct of private corporations. We believe that the use of the City wastes as fuel for this plant would be entirely impracticable, this opinion being based on preliminary estimates. Attached to this report are detailed specifications, and photographs of drawings showing the design of the proposed power plant; accompanying it is a complete set of prints of the power plant and two colored drawings, showing a proposed design for the power-house. Report On February 10, 1905, we handed you our Report A, giving the cost of construction and operation of an electric power plant and system of distribution for the Boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx, having a capacity sufficient to supply all the the lighting of streets, public places and public buildings that are now lighted by electricity, and in addition, to substitute lighting by electricity for lighting by gas in all public buildings, that is, to eliminate the use of gas entirely from the City's lighting, with the exception of the lighting of that part of the streets that are now lighted by gas. This Report B includes, in addition to that covered by Report A, plant and equipment to supply electric lighting for all the City streets, parks, buildings and public places, to the entire exclusion of gas, naphtha and other illuminants, in the Boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx. At present 290 miles of streets in Manhattan and The Bronx are lighted by electricity and 442 miles by gas or naphtha,-a total of 732 miles. This report then includes the lighting by electricity of these additional 442 miles of public streets, which are now lighted to a great extent by Welsbach mantle lights, there being some 28 000 such lights now in use. This will require approximately 15 000 are lights, an increase of 9 000 over the number included in our Report A. Our investigations have also shown that the City is paying for electric service in a number of buildings that it rents. This, together with the lights required in buildings now under construction, such as the Public Library, and allowance for a number of small motors used in various buildings, increases the total 16-candle-power incandescent equivalent to approximately 300 000 This report then includes an equipment of sufficient capacity to supply fifteen thousand 7.5 ampere arc lights, and a connected load of three Scope. |