An Investigation of Economies of Large Size in Steam Stations

Abstract

easier to analyze than the costs of other types of plants for two reasons: First, the product, electricity, is homogeneous in a physical sense, in contrast to the output of, say, a steel rolling mill. Second, the accounting records of steam stations approach comparability more closely than those of many types of plant owing to the uniform system of accounts prescribed by the Federal Power Commission and the several state public utility commissions. The present study was undertaken in the hope that with these advantages it would be possible to get some general notion, at least, of the relation between size of station and the cost of steam-generated power. It must be emphasized that this investigation is not a general study of the factors influencing the cost of power from steam stations. The rise in prices which has occurred in recent years, for example, is of interest only secondarily. The purpose of the investigation is specialized: it is to uncover the relation between size and cost, other things being equal. The work was undertaken with the fear that the results would be crude but in the