Electrifying Illinois Farms 



(Continued from page 5) 

 problems of serving rural territory 

 from the standpoint of a comparatively 

 small operator. Farmers know him and 

 have confidence in him. He was the 

 busiest man I found in all my travels 

 for he has a project underway to ex- 

 tend 98 miles of lines to 320 signed-up 

 farms in 15 townsliips of Peoria and 

 Knox counties. 



Tegtmeier was assembling informa- 

 tion for the Rural Electrification Ad- 

 ministration. He had charts, maps, 

 tables, curves, financial statements, 

 letters, data, bids on equipment and a 

 lot of other things ready to take to 

 Washington. Everything was figured 

 out, even to the cost of the bolts and 

 screws that go into the proposed farm 

 lines — all based on actual bids from 

 manufacturers. The Suburban Corpo- 

 ration has applied for a loan of $81,500. 

 It has been given tentative approval 

 end Tegtmeier has hopes of getting the 

 first loan through from REA in Illi- 

 nois if not in the United States. 



"I've been calling on farmers since 

 May 25," he told me. "I started about 

 10 days after the President announced 

 the $100,000,000 REA loan. We have 

 816 farms in our territory. We're now 

 serving 192 of them. We buy our power 

 from Central Illinois Light Co. at Pe- 

 oria. Cost runs around 1.8 cents per 

 kilowatt-hour. Our power or load fac- 

 tor is about 42." 



Load factor is one of the first things 

 a utility man mentions when you talk 

 about rural electric service. Tegtmeier 

 explained it this way. According to 

 charts he sho^ved me, the greatest de- 

 mand at any one time for electricity 

 on his lines is 254 k'lowatts. This maxi- 

 mum demand must be paid" for just the 

 same as if it were being used all the 

 time. Only 42 per cent of the time, 

 however, is maximum use being made 

 of the maximum demand. If greater 

 use were made of electricity without 

 increasing the maximum demand at 

 any one time, the cost of current could 

 be reduced. Thus the facilities for fur- 

 nishing power are largely going to 

 waste a substantial part of the time. 

 On strictly farm lines, Tegtmeier said, 

 there is a high percentage of loss. It 

 runs around 50 per cent. So when you 

 buy electricity through a master meter, 

 as Tegtmeier does, there is a loss of a 

 substantial part of that energy. 



The Suburban Company serves a 

 number of small towns including Dun- 

 lap, Williamsfield, Laura, Dahinda, 

 Kickapoo, Oak Hill, Alta, Radnor and 

 the suburban area north of Peoria in 

 addition to his rural customers. 



Tetgmeier purchased the Big Hollow 

 Electric Light and Power Company, 

 largely a farmer-owned property oper- 



A. Public S<TT- 



irr Co of :«o. Illi- 

 nol». B. Cpntral 

 Illinolii Public 



Service Co. C. llli- 

 nol» Piiwer A 

 Lirtt Corporation, 

 n. IIHrmls Northern 

 Utllilles Company. E. 

 Central Illliioii Llcht 

 Co. F. MoHmry County 

 LlKhl & Pnwer Co. G. 

 Sherrard Power System. 

 H Peoples Power To. 

 I. Bock River Valley 

 Llirhl & Power Co. J. 

 Cenlral Illinois Electric 

 & Gaa Co. K. Kewan«-e 

 Public Serrice Co. L. 

 Western United Oas & 

 Electric Co. M. East 

 Dnbnuue Electric Co. 

 N. Commonwfallh Fdi* 

 son Co. O. Mound Util- 

 ities Corporation. P. 



Suburban Eleoiric Utilities Co. Q. South 

 Beloit Water. Gas A Electric Co. B. Mount 

 Carmel Public Utility A Service Co. S. 

 Missisfuppi River Pnwer Co. T. Interstate 

 Lirht A Power Co. U. Elizabeth Ui.-ht A 

 Power Co. V. Dallas City Liihl Co. W. 

 WoiKlxIooh Light A Power Co. X. Wayne 

 City Utilities Co. T. Northwestern Ulinola 

 Utilities. Z. Keokuk Electric Co. 



ating in and about Dunlap and Alta, 

 seven years ago. "They sold out be- 

 cause they could not make any money," 

 he said. "Back in 1928 they had about 

 160 meters. The rates then were 15 

 cents for the first 25 kilowatts, 12 cents 

 tor the next 25, and 11 cents for every- 



thing over 50 kw. In 1930 we cut to 12 

 cents, 10 cents and five cents. 



"The local company over at Wil- 

 liamsfield, similarly, had a rate of 16 

 cents for the first 20 kw, 13 cents for 

 the next 30 kw and 12 cents for all 

 (Continued on page 15) 



L A. A. RECORD 



