Discussion on “water power and defense” (Whitney), “the water power situation, including its financial aspect” (Dunn), Washington, D. C., April 26, 1916. (see proceedings for May, 1916)

F. A. Lidbury: I am glad this question has been brought up, because there has been for years a tendency on the part of electrical engineers in connection with their valley load problems to assume that the electrochemical industries can offer an easy solution. The tendency appears in various ways. There is the steam central station man who comes to electrochemical manufacturers and says, “We can offer you lots of power at cheap rates if you will only take it for a few hours of the day.” When you find out what he means by cheap rates you get a shock; but putting that aside, and putting aside the fact that few electrochemical processes can operate satisfactorily in an intermittent manner, let us see what he is trying to do. He is trying to relieve his prospective customer of the investment portion of the cost of the steam power. What is forgotten is that he is asking the customer to increase his own investment charges.