Electric Light Rates Lowered

Rival of the Edison Company Makes Reductions for Small and Large Consumers.

IS NOW AS CHEAP AS GAS

Wholesale Users Can Get Electricity at Even a Lower Price Than the Older Illuminant.

FURTHER CUTS POSSIBLE.

To meet the reduction in electric light rates made by the Edison Company on October 1, the United Electric Light and Power Company yesterday issued a new schedule, with a rate considerably lower than that of the rival company. This reduction, which will operate on bills for this month, places incandescent lights on the same footing with gas, practically, and large users will get the light even cheaper than gas.

An attempt was made last winter in the Legislature at Albany to make electric light companies lower the price for incandescent lighting from the one cent an hour basis per sixteen candle power lamp to a three-quarters of a cent basis, but the bill did not become a law. Now the companies have made a cut voluntarily.

Likely to Affect Gas Companies.

This reduction, made by the two electric lighting companies, is the result, in a way, of a war between them, but the effect, it is said, will be felt the most by the gas companies. The electric light companies, however, declare there is no war, but that electricity can be supplied so much cheaper now than a few years ago that they can afford to reach out for increased business with lower rates.

With a lower rate the companies expect to induce more housekeepers, storekeepers and other consumers to substitute electric light for gas. For incandescent lights the new rates of the United Electric Light and Power Company are 15 cents a kilowatt hour.

At the former rate of a cent an hour an incandescent light was about equal in cost per hour to gas at $2 a thousand. With the rate at three-quarters of a cent the cost will not equal $1 gas, but the new schedule puts the price of each light at one-quarter of a cent for all use in excess of three hours. This rate is about the same as fifty cent gas.

According to this schedule a customer burning a lamp for ten hours gets a rate of four-tenths of a cent an hour, which is the same as gas at eighty cents. Those who consume 2,000 kilowatts each month and average two hours’ daily use of all lamps connected come under the wholesale rate. Two thousand kilowatts equal 40,000 lamp hours.

Equivalent to Fifty Cent Gas.

Under the wholesale rate the price is ten cents a kilowatt for the first three hours of daily use and five cents a kilowatt for all use in excess of that time. At ten cents a kilowatt the consumer’s light is about the same as dollar gas, and at the lower rate equals fifty cent gas. The reduction in arc lighting is about on the same basis, and electric power under the new schedule is about fifteen per cent lower than before.

Though the United Electric Light and Power Company is much smaller than its rival, the Edison Company, its territory extends from the Battery to 137th street, between the North and East rivers, and plans are under way to increase its present capacity of 15,000 horse power to 27,000. The company owns the Tesla patents for the induction motor, which has no brushes or commutators.

Consumers are pleased with the new schedules, but declare the reduction is not so great as it appears, because the “bill” and “burning” discounts have been discontinued.

Still lower rates are a possibility however, for the Edison company, it is said, intends to meet the latest cut and go even a little lower than the United company.