The Multiplex Cost and Rate System

The author gives the method of determining the cost of service having a variable demand, with special application to electric service, because the cost does and must always determine the selling price; competition and commissioners can only regulate the profit therein contained. Competition is destructive, involving an immense amount of unnecessary expenditure and lost motion. In order to insure the lowest price to the consumer we must have regulation, and monopoly. The author starts with the premise that an equipment must earn its cost and profits when in use; certainly it cannot do so when idle. The greater the percentage of total time an equipment or part thereof stands idle, the more it must earn when in use, because interest, etc., runs continuously. The subject is a big one and of tremendous import not only to the electric business, but to all business, and it has been the center of discussion for many years. It is now time to get down to absolute proofs of every conclusion, based upon fundamental facts.