A high-voltage distributing system

THE Seattle Municipal Light and Power Plant is operating a 26,000-volt distributing system in an attempt to approach the ideal of constant potential distribution in a rather novel way. The idea which is being developed is to carry the high-voltage lines as close as possible to the consumer´s premises, making the primary feeders correspondingly short. By placing the heavier industrial loads on separate power lines and providing a special station with regulators to care for the congested business district, a system is secured that will serve the entire city from three main distributing points with very close regulation and without the use of feeder regulators. The higher voltage lines are naturally more efficient, as our records of distribution losses seem to indicate. The fundamental requirements of safety and reliability are at least as well satisfied by the new system as by the more orthodox one it displaces, and the high-voltage system is certainly more economical and resourceful.