IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2016 - 112

figure 7. The Hicks Street substation with a pair of motor-generator sets in the
foreground (from Electrical World, 25 May 1911, p. 1,312).

Avenue within the property of Thomas
E. Murray's manufacturing complex.
Also unique to Brooklyn were "seasonal" substations; the largest, at West
12th Street, supplied the Coney Island area
and the huge Luna Park amusement park.
It was rated at 5,000 kW for peak summer
demand but was lightly loaded the rest of
the year. A smaller plant at the Dreamland
amusement park was rated at 3,200 kW
and operated only five months a year. As a
result of such loads, the system peak came

figure 8. The stylized company logo
adopted by the Brooklyn Edison Company after the 1911 reorganization that
joined several electric utility companies
in Brooklyn (photo courtesy of Robert
Lobenstein).
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in September when the parks were still
open rather than in December, which was
the norm for most utilities in the northern
United States at that time.
While all this was underway, a revolution was occurring in the electric power
industry. Murray had noted, in 1915, that
the substations and also the heavy cable
needed for the high current required for
120/240-V dc distribution had come to
comprise half of the fixed-cost investment in a system. Conversely, new developments in ac distribution made it more
attractive and practical in areas with a
dense concentration of load. Many companies were developing distribution networks to manage the reactive power losses that plagued ac distribution schemes
in areas of dense load concentration. The
presence of the ac distribution in four dc
substations would seem to indicate that
the Brooklyn Company was pursuing
an approach similar to that of the Commonwealth Edison Company of Chicago.
There, the dc territory was limited by specific borders with an intent to eventually
reduce the dc territory.

Bold Moves
In 1919, the Edison Electric Illuminating
Company of Brooklyn, the Kings County Electric Light and Power Company (a

holding company that financed it), and
smaller subsidiaries were formally reorganized as the Brooklyn Edison Company. The revised name appeared on
company signs at the 66th Street power
plant by 1911 (see Figure 8). Matthew
S. Sloan, an engineer and utility executive from the South and also a protégé of
Murray with experience in the New York
Edison Company, was selected to head
the reorganized company. Under his
management, significant developments
were initiated.
Following the development of new
mathematical equations, three-phase lines
could accommodate efficiently any singlephase load. Most utility systems anticipated the substitution of three-phase systems for the two-phase lines that were
then standard for 60-Hz distribution.
The change effected a 50% increase in
transmission capacity for the same investment in copper. Sloan initiated the
conversion of Brooklyn in 1923.
Total system capacity was 190 MW.
The Gold Street plant was rated at
125 MW, three-phase, 25 Hz, 6,600 V.
Distribution capacity was divided, with
96-MW dc from substation converters
and 10-20-MW ac from the frequency
changers that supplied the new ac customers in dc territory. The 66th Street
Union station was rated at 65 MW, two
phase, 62.5 Hz for ac customers in southern Brooklyn. Overall, ac distribution
capacity in Brooklyn averaged 80 MW
or almost half of the connected load.
The company then had 95,980 kW
of dc substation converter capacity supported by more than 60,000 Ah of battery reserve. Sloan noted that the proportion of dc load had declined rapidly,
and the only exception was a new dc
substation required to meet increased
demand from industries related to the
Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Sloan noted the national trend of dc
retirement due to the increasing cost and
reduced reliability of dc systems and
significant improvements in the reliability and efficiency of ac distribution.
In 1923, he initiated the change of dc
customers to ac with compensation to
the customer for any equipment replacement required. Commercial and residenjanuary/february 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2016