Electric Light Company Research Articles

Transient response of a megawatt-scale solar photovoltaic in an electric distribution utility

There is an increasing trend among customers of an electrical distribution utility to adopt grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems. This shift offers multiple benefits to consumers, including lower monthly electricity bills and a contribution to the development of green energy. For the electrical distribution utility, various impacts may arise due to varying levels of solar energy penetration. This study investigates the effects of integrating varying levels of solar photovoltaic penetration into the commercial consumer network of Cagayan de Oro Electric Power and Light Company (CEPALCO) in the Philippines. Utilizing PowerWorld simulator, the research evaluates 11 different scenarios with solar penetration levels adjusted according to the percentage of load demand. Key findings include alterations in solar megavolt ampere of reactive power output, bus voltage levels, transformer power loading, and transmission line ampacity, with frequency levels remaining stable across scenarios. The optimal solar penetration level was identified at 70%, balancing the benefits of solar energy integration with the need to maintain grid stability and operational limits. This optimal level ensures the effective utilization of renewable energy sources without compromising the performance of CEPALCO’s electrical infrastructure. The research concludes with recommendations for maintaining grid stability and operational limits at the optimal solar penetration limits.

Integrating High Levels of Wind in Island Systems: Lessons from Hawaii

such as wind and solar plants presents an operational challenge for grid operators. The economic incentives and technical challenges that accompany large amounts of variable generation in island power systems are often much greater. The Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries, the Maui Electric Company and the Hawaii Electric Light Company have considerable experience in planning and operating power systems with relatively high levels of wind power. The islands of Hawaii and Maui operate power systems with high levels of wind power (more than 10% by energy) and have experienced and addressed challenges associated with the variability and uncertainty of wind power. The island of Maui is anticipating further wind plant deployments in the near future. Recent analyses of possible near-term deployment of large amounts of wind power on the Oahu power system (500MW of wind power; approximately 1200MW peak and 520MW minimum annual load) has shown the potential for this system to accept almost 25% of its energy from wind and solar power. This paper will identify some of the wind integration challenges and highlight the benefits of a variety of strategies that are expected to improve system economics and operational reliability, including proposed modifications to the baseload thermal fleet (deeper turndown, higher ramp rates, and tuned droop characteristics), advanced wind turbine grid support features, new operating strategies, wind forecasting and refinements to the up and down reserve requirements. This paper will present the key findings in the context of useful insights and lessons learned that are relevant to other island power systems considering very high levels of wind power.

Special Issue on the 100th Anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake

On September 1, 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck the Tokyo metropolitan area of Japan. It was an extremely powerful earthquake that caused a great fire. The death toll reached approximately 105,000, and the economic loss is estimated to have exceeded 30% of the Japanese gross national product at that time. For September 2023, the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR) has planned a special issue to commemorate 100 years since the Great Kanto Earthquake. While previous special issues by the JDR have focused on specific disasters, this special issue will focus on the lessons and findings from the catastrophe and will cover even the progress of disaster research since then. We received fourteen important and thought-provoking manuscripts not only on scientific and engineering aspects but also on social and cultural aspects, including comparisons with other disasters, historical views, reconstruction issues, and future perspectives. These fourteen articles can be categorized into the three groups described below. The first four articles are the English translations of articles that originally appeared in “Koho Bosai,” the bimonthly journal on natural disaster reduction that is complied and published by the Disaster Management Section, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. The JDR believes that these four articles provide a concise English description of various aspects of the Great Kanto Earthquake disasters. Dr. Takemura summarizes the seismic features of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake. Dr. Sekizawa summarizes the large scale urban fires that it caused. Dr. Suzuki describes various aspects of the emergency responses. Dr. Murosaki details the recovery project in Tokyo. Those articles discussed various lessons learned from the 1923 Kanto Earthquake and emphasized the importance of transferring the lessons toward future disaster mitigation. The next six papers were originally works studying various aspects of the Great Kanto Earthquake disasters. Dr. Midorikawa reviews the strong ground motion of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake. Dr. Kaneko evaluates the resulting tsunami. Mr. Mammen sheds new light on the relationship between Charles A. Beard and Goto Shinpei in terms of the recovery. Dr. Albini studies the voices of foreign residents who left impressive disaster processes at that time. Dr. Murao reviews the urbanization of Tokyo after the Kanto Earthquake. Dr. Shima studies the response of the Tokyo Electric Light Company, Inc. to the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. The last four papers are works on various aspects of disaster risk reduction, but all of these works were inspired by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in one way or another. Dr. Shaw provides a framework for repositioning earthquake risk reduction. Dr. Shimbo explores the Phase Free Concept. Dr. Shoji focuses on the possibility of Medium-Wave AM Radio Broadcasting. Dr. Yamaguchi studies the Risk Communication Method. The Editorial Board of the JDR thanks all of these contributors and hopes that these articles serve as great sources for further research in disaster risk reduction.

Dialogue on Democracy

Dialogue on Democracy

Русификация менеджмента электротехнических компаний как фактор укрепления конкурентоспособности России на рубеже XIX–XX веков

The present article contains analysis of the human capital problem of electrotechnical industry during the economic modernization at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, which was conducted based on archive sources stored in the Russian State Historical Archive (RSHA), Central State Historical Archive of Saint Petersburg (CSHA SPb) and Central State Archive of Moscow (CSA of Moscow), official pre-revolutionary statistics collections and scientific literature. Based on the example of the largest energy company in Russia – “Electric lighting company of 1886”, established by the entrepreneur originated from Germany, Karl Siemens, the process of russification of the foreign management in electrotechnical industry is demonstrated. Domination of foreign specialists at the initial stage of the establishment of industry was mostly caused by objective circumstances, connected both with specifics of functioning of joint stock companies in Russia and with the absence of the required competencies of local managers related to the management of electrotechnical companies. On the one hand, this problem was being resolved by granting a Russian citizenship to the founders and shareholders of acting joint stock companies and on the other hand, this niche was actively occupied by the graduates of local technical schools who displaced foreign management. This process has been developing most quickly during the First World War when the state introduced instead of foreign shareholders a “special management board” represented by local specialists. However, this problem has not been fully resolved due to various reasons.

News From Japan

The history of the use of electricity in Japan began as telecommunication, which started in 1869, one year after the Meiji Restoration. The first electric arc lamp shone in Ginza, Tokyo, in 1882, the same year as the start of operation of Edison's Pearl Street Power Plant in New York. Only four years later (1886), Tokyo Electric Light Company, one of the predecessors of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, started its business as the first electric power company in Japan. Many similar companies started their businesses in the following several years. In these early days, electric power companies in eastern Japan imported 50-Hz generators from Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) in Germany, and those in western Japan imported 60-Hz generators from General Electric Company in the United States. From this historical background, AC 50 Hz is still used in eastern Japan and 60 Hz in western Japan.

Hydroelectric Power: The First 30 Years [History

A bulletin of the edison Electric Light Company dated 20 December 1882 reported that three residences in Appleton, Wisconsin, were lit by an Edison system driven by water power (Figure 1). In 1933, the Appleton chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution installed a commemorative plaque that declared, Near this site the world's first hydroelectric central station was erected in 1882. In fact, the history of single-user hydroelectric power began in 1878 in Northumberland, England, and the history of continuous multiuser commercial hydroelectric power began in 1880 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

AN ANALYSIS OF POWER SECTOR REFORMS IN INDIA AND CANADA

The electricity generation in Canada uses natural resources more. At present too, almost 65% of electricity is generated by hydro plants. The Nelson Electric Light Company, the first company to build a hydro site in British Columbia commenced its operation producing power for the City of Nelson on February 1, 1896. The Sandon plant was the second in March 1897. Development of the electricity sector gathered momentum after the First World War with the creation of provincial utilities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia in the 1920s. Publicly owned electric companies emphasised mainly on rural electrification and hydroelectric development. In Manitoba and British Columbia, private companies repaidly developed the hydropower. Since 1960, large hydroelectric projects, mainly in Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, significantly increased the country's generation capacity

Electrifying Kyoto: Business and Politics in Light and Power, 1887–1915

The city of Kyoto witnessed Japan’s first public-owned electric utility and first hydraulic station for general supply, and was the first Japanese city in which every household became electrified. Behind these achievements, the interaction between the privately owned Kyoto Electric Light Company and the government-owned Kyoto Municipal Electric Works were important. By exploring their origin, collusion, competition, and demarcation between them from 1887 to 1915, this article addresses business–government relations in the history of Japanese electrification through the case of Kyoto.

Electrifying the City: Power and Profit at the City of London Electric Lighting Company Limited

The City of London Electric Lighting Company Limited generated and supplied electricity for the City of London from 1891 to 1948. Such early British electricity undertakings have been seen as inefficient and small-scale, with little opportunity or incentive for expansion. This article challenges that view and argues that the City Company was profitable and efficient: it encouraged electricity demand and actively expanded its operations. An analysis of operating data demonstrates the Company was financially profitable and attracted new consumers and investors; high electricity usage reflected the population density and relative prosperity of the City of London. Inter-war legislation encouraged co-operation between, and integration of, electricity undertakings but ultimately the Company — despite objections — was abolished under nationalisation of the industry in 1948. This article calls for further analysis of individual electricity undertakings to demonstrate how they reflected and affected their supply area and may further challenge orthodoxies about the backwardness of the British electricity industry.

SELCO India: Solar Energy for the Underserved

Solar Electric Lighting Company (SELCO) was established in 1995 to serve the energy needs of people living at the base of the pyramid in Karnataka, India. The CEO, Dr Satish Hande, focused on developing need-based customized solar energy products for off-grid customers. During the initial years, the company faced financial problems to meet its operational needs, which was eventually overcome. Solar Electric Lighting Company came up with several innovative products that increased productivity of customers. Though the products sold were priced low, care was taken to ensure that product quality was not compromised. The company subsequently faced several challenges. The appointment of dealers in lieu of its own branches did not deliver desired results. Increase in input costs landed SELCO in losses. Pressure from investors for profits when the company was facing financial crisis was the toughest of them all. Having overcome the obstacles, SELCO became profitable, expanded operations in six states of India and installed 200,000 solar lighting systems in a period of two decades. Several growth options presented themselves to Dr Hande. The most prominent being the need to make a choice of staying focused on customized products for the poor or cater to the upmarket, high-growth and profitable segment.

Walking the Wall

Walking the Wall

SELCO: lighting rural India

Subject area Social entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Human Resource. Study level/applicability The case study is relevant for students of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. This case can be used as a case in strategy (growth strategy), marketing and innovation subjects as well. Case overview The case study revolves around Mr Harish Hande and his efforts to build a for–profit social enterprise Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) to provide electricity to poor and under–served. Harish focused on providing cheap, clean and sustainable energy sources to rural customers at bottom of the pyramid of the society. From the conception of SELCO, Harish has been on a roller–coaster ride of success and failure. Harish has used the problems as a learning ground and improved his business model successfully. But, when Harish tried to scale his operations in 2005–2006 he failed miserably. Some errors in the decision coupled with external pressure had brought SELCO to a verge of collapse. Owing to the determination of Harish and his team, SELCO was able to revive from the difficult times to generate profits again. Harish now again wants to expand but this time he would not take any chances. He wants to analyze and discuss every possible issue, he might face during his expansion plans. Expected learning outcomes The key learning aspects of this case is to understand importance and practice of talent management. The case also highlights the best practices that SELCO uses to reach its clients and provide them complete solution. Supplementary materials Teaching note.

Power struggles: scientific authority and the creation of practical electricity before Edison

In 1882, Thomas Edison and his Edison Electric Light Company unveiled the first large-scale electrical system in the world to light a stretch of offices in a city. This was a monumental achievement, but it was not the beginning of the electrical age. The first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered lights (in lighthouses) in the early 1860s. In Power Struggles, Michael Brian Schiffer examines some of these earlier efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, that paved the way for Edison. After laying out a unified theoretical framework for understanding technological change, Schiffer presents a series of fascinating case studies of pre-Edison electrical technologies, including Volta's electrochemical battery, the blacksmith's electric motor, the first mechanical generators, Morse's telegraph, the Atlantic cable, and the lighting of the Capitol dome. Schiffer discusses claims of and impracticality (sometimes hotly contested) made for these technologies, and examines the central role of the scientific authority--in particular, the activities of Joseph Henry, mid-nineteenth-century America's foremost scientist--in determining the fate of particular technologies. These emerging electrical technologies formed the foundation of the modern industrial world. Schiffer shows how and why they became commercial products in the context of an evolving corporate capitalism in which conflicting judgments of practicality sometimes turned into power struggles.

From Municipal Socialism to Public Authorities: Institutional Factors in the Shaping of American Public Enterprise

In 1914 Daniel Hoan, the socialist city attorney of Milwaukee, pronounced regulation of public utilities a “complete fizzle.” Hoan's conclusion was based on years spent battling the imperious Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company with the limited legal tools at the city's disposal. He argued that even in Wisconsin, where regulatory agencies were at their most efficient and honest, it was impossible for public utility commissions to force good service at moderate cost from investor-owned companies. Commissioners would only push so far, realistically fearing they might drive private capital out of the state. Thus, in Hoan's opinion, the only sensible course was “to secure the democratic control of collectively owned property.” Despite this conviction and his astonishingly successful political career—spanning thirty years as an openly socialist public official, including twenty-four as Milwaukee's mayor—he retired from politics in 1940 having socialized only a stone quarry and the city's streetlights. As with many other local socialist officeholders in the United States, Hoan left a robust legacy of honest, efficient, and humane administration. But when it came to expanding public ownership, his record was meager.1

東京電燈千住火力発電所発電機の調相機兼用改造とその影響(第1報)

東京電燈千住火力発電所発電機の調相機兼用改造とその影響(第1報)

Strategic leadership at General Electric

Discusses General Electric (GE) and the way it has adapted and implemented strategy to changing market‐place conditions. Elaborates on GE's origination from the Edison Electric Light Company set up by Thomas Edison in 1878. Shows how entrepreneurial leadership has helped the company to stimulate growth. States high technology and technical service businesses were central to GE's growth objectives; both businesses were elevated to sector level.

Illuminating Systems: Edison and Electrical Incandescence

Thomas A. Edison did not in vent the electric light. He invented a system of electrical in candescent lighting. Between 1878 and 1881, Edison and his associates developed generators, wiring, insu lation, fuses, sockets, and switches as well as the bulb. That is, Edison devised a system composed of the compatible parts necessary to banish darkness with the flip of a switch. Further, the Wizard of Menlo Park established a corporate structure to manufacture the various com ponents and market the entire package as the Edison Electric Light Companies. Edison's pursuit of sys tematization was hardly unique. While technical, inventive, and business insight characterized his special genius, his advocacy and understanding of business and technological systems was widely shared. As Alan I Marcus and Howard P. Segal observe in Technology in America: A Brief History, was the touchstone of late nine teenthand early-twentieth-cen tury America, and it influenced virtually every aspect of American life. In an age of systematization, businessmen and engineers shared and acted upon a basic understand ing of system. System entailed a rational, hierarchical arrangement of distinct parts into a harmonious whole. That is, each part had its own integrity but had to operate in conjunction with other parts to ensure the smooth functioning of the whole. The concept found expression in Carnegie's rationalization of steel production, Rockefeller's organiza tion of oil transport, and Ford's transformation of auto manufactur ing with the assembly line. Corpo rate structure was commensurate with the projects undertaken. For instance, the railroad giants stan dardized track and employed stan dard time which enabled them to fix schedules that maximized freight

Spatial Diffusion of Electric Light Company in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

The meaning of hierarchy effect as an empirical regularity in the spatial diffusion of entrepreneurial innovation has been ambiguous, and its spatial signification has been imperfect in the past. In the case of profit-motivated polynuclear innovation a hierarchical diffusion viewed from the aspect of spatial process seems to occur through the spatial market division. Therefore in this paper, taking an example of the diffusion of electric light company (E.L. Company for short) in Fukushima Prefecture, the author examined this point (Fig. 1 & 3).On the whole E.L. Company, which first opened in Fukushima in 1895, spread from the city to the town and from the town to the village, showing the hierarchical diffusion pattern (Fig. 4 & 6). Particularly this time lag of diffusion by the city, town and village-category may be accounted for by the concentration of entrepreneurs on specific places (Table 2). Moreover it also results from the fact that the motive of establishment in the city and town is different from that in the village; that is, while the motive in the former is to make a profit, that in the latter is to raise the life and culture level. So the author investigated the diffusion process of E.L. Company by the city, town and village-category.The municipal cities in Fukushima Prefecture were only Aizu-Wakamatsu and Fukushima. The reasons why the opening of E.L. Company in Fukushima was earlier than that in Aizu-Wakamatsu whose population was the largest are inferred as follows. (1) The information potential in Fukushima is high by a close relationship to the Keihin district through the export of habutae-silk. (2) Fukushima is in close vicinity to Sendai where the first E.L. Company in Tohoku district opened in 1894. (3) While the economic world in Aizu-Wakamatsu where the traditional industry was located and suffered a blow of the Meiji Restoration War was stagnant, that in Fukushima which was suddenly rising backed by the silk-reeling industry was more enterprising.For the diffusion process of E.L. Company in the town and village level, the following result was obtained by step wise forward discriminant analysis and multiple regression analysis. The potential adopters in the town level are those where population and textile industry are agglomerated, and whose possibility to be included within the service area of E.L. Company in Fukushima is low (Table 3 & 4). Among towns fulfilling these conditions, the more population, information potential, and possibility to get wide service areas they had, the earlier the openings of E.L. Companies were (Table 5). E.L. Companies thus opened in the city and town extended their service areas toward the neighboring villages where some industrial activities existed within the limit of electric transmission (Table 6 & 7 and Fig. 9). In this regard a significant market division principle restricted by distance definitely operated. Though the market division by E.L. Companies proceeded, those in the city and town didn't lastly include all the villages into their service areas, consciously excluding some small villages (This point is suggested by the fact that from Table 8 E.L. Companies tended to open in smaller villages). In other words it means that the market division principle based on the opportunity distribution such as population size replaced the above-mentioned principle restricted by distance.But even among the villages not graced with the electric light, if hydraulic power place exists in the vicinity and some industrial activities are located, there is a possibility for E.L. Company to open (Table 8 & 9). Soon after World War I among the villages fulfilling the above conditions, the less possibility to be included within the service area of E.L. Company in Fukushima, the more industrial activities and the higher income level they had, the earlier the openings of E.L. Companies were (Table 10).

Henry Gerard Thornton, 22 January 1892 - 6 February 1977

Henry Gerard T hornton was born in London in 1892, the elder son of Frank Hugh Thornton, J. P., of Kingsthorpe Hall, Northampton. His father, who was a breeder of shorthorn cattle, exporting prize bulls to Argentina, came from a long line of Northamptonshire landowners which had received an influx of exotic blood in the eighteenth century when an heiress daughter had married a Dutch Huguenot merchant from Smyrna. In more senses than one the father was an enlightened country gentleman, for not only was he instrumental in establishing the first electric light company in the county, but he was also much concerned with rural health and welfare and infant mortality, and introduced hygienic methods for milk production. This interest was no doubt much deepened by the death of his wife Evelyn ( née Burchell) in childbirth when Henry was 9 years old.