Document NxdKkyNjX3aZJm60xEV3waEy

E SUNDAY HOME EDITION DENVER POSTsVOL. 64. NO. 40 I$I9 Million Power Electricity Demand Unit Started by PSC GrowthTops Area's See story on page 1 also. like amount in Alamosa. In 1S51 Denver's enormous and By GENE UNDBERG Denver Post Staff Writer ever increasing growth was dramatized electrically With the addition of the new the Arapahoe plant went on the 100,000 kilowatt generator now on line with 132,000 kilowatts. the line at the Arapahoe steam- Now, with the latest Arapahoe plant addition, the company's sys Friday when oificials of the Public Service Company of Colorado broke ground electric station here, that sta tem capacity la 5T7.600 kilowatts. ior a new $10 million, 100,000-kilowatt steam-electric generator station at E. Ave. and Franklin St. On the same day, they flipped the switch putting on the line the 62nd new tion's total capacity is 232,000 kil The present plans of the company owatts, John E. Loiseau, presi expect the total to reach the 1dent of the Public Service Co., mllllon-watt mark some time be said Saturday, fore 1965. That's nearly doublo 100,000-ki 1 o w a 11 turbo-electric That would have been enough present capacity. generator just completed ns an addition to the Arapahoe steam- electricity to power the com pany's entire statewide electrical Demand for pany officials electricity, pointed out com At u electric station at 2601 S. Platte River Dr. in South Denver. system only ten years ago. after the war's end In 1945, right luncheon for representatives press and radio held Friday of in That's generator enough, ac cording to John E. Loiseau, pres ident of Public Service, to supply the present electrical needs of a city of 250,000 people. Only ter years ago, in 1945, this one nev. generator could have lighted anc Postwar growth of Denver and the state made It necessary to add more than 100,000 kilowatts of generating capacity at the company's Zunl plant here; 15,000 kilowatts In Grand Junction I the Brown Palace hotel, grows faster than population. Since July 1, 1945, the company's electric customers have increased 75 pet., but the customers' use of elec tricity has zoomed 109 pet. This faster increase of electri powered all of Denver. MOKE EXPANSION SEEN Yet so fast is Denver's demand for current growing, industrially and populationvvise, Loiseau said, that the new east Denver gener ating plant, to be known as the Cherokee station, will be needed by the time its original 100.000kilowatt unit is ready for service in mid-1957. cal demand is the result of vast increases in the numbers and size of electrical appliances. Back in the 1930's Loiseau recalls, there were only nineteen appliances in average home use; now there are 56, including television sets, gar bage disposal units, dishwashers, laundry driers and many other devices completely unknown only a quarter-century ago. Future increases of generating Eventually the new Cherokee capacity at the Cherokee station, station can be expanded to a mil Loiseau said, probably will he lion-kilowatt plant. Loiseau said. ------------------- for its 130-acre site will permit made in greater than 100.000-kilowatt unit steps. It soon may be vast expansion northward. Origi|Ug nally the site was homesteaded by Colorado pioneers and was farm- ' land until recently. necessary to jump to generators more than twice that big. But Denver's generator expansion shortly may be coming at the rate (Etectricity demand tops of 100,000 kilowatts a year to keep area's growth. Page 3!C, col. 7) pace with growth and increased customer demands. WAD01405