Economie studies applied to industrial power systems

INDUSTRIAL plants are quite understandably governed principally by the problems associated most directly with production. It is important, naturally, to concentrate the talents of plant management on the larger elements in the cost of the finished product because new ideas can be very effective here in creating savings in cost or increasing output. It is therefore not surprising that the cost of electrical service, particularly in respect to investment requirements for the necessary physical plant, is likely to receive less attention. A procedure often adopted in plants where power does not enter heavily into the cost of the finished product is to plan new installations or make changes in production facilities with only incidental regard to the problems of electrical supply and thereby oblige the electrical planning engineer to furnish power to the production equipment as best he can. This does not always lead to an electric system of optimum cost. It may not lead to minimum long-term cost of the total production facility.