Village of Mayville Municipal Electric Department

Electric Department crews shown replacing outdated high voltage lines with heavier wire.

MAYVILLE ELECTRIC DEPARTMENT HISTORY

- OVER 100 YEARS OF PUBLIC POWER -

On May 29, 1896, a special election of the voters and taxpayers of the Village was held to determine their wishes in regard to the installation of a street lighting system composed of 26 arc lamps and a small DC generator. The proposition was adopted almost unanimously, and on October 1, 1896 the installation had been completed and the lights were turned on "from dark until 1:00 a.m., except moonlit nights." This was the beginning of Mayville's electric system.

As incandescent lamps become more readily available, having been invented by Thomas Edison in 1879, requests for commercial and home lighting began to come in. Lamps with a rating of 16 candlepower were furnished by the Electric Department, at a charge of ½¢ per hour for each lamp, the charge to be made during the hours when power was available, whether or not the lamps were lighted.

Soon the demand increased to the point where more power was needed. A $10,000.00 bond issue was voted for the purchase of a 60 kilowatt, 133 cycle, Fort Wayne AC generator. In 1916, this generator was "retired," and Mayville began to purchase power, first from the Chautauqua Traction Company, and then from the Niagara and Lockport Power Company, which later merged to become the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation.

In 1931, power supplied to customers at 25 cycles was changed to 60 cycles, which is what is supplied today. The change to 60 Hz power required substantial changes to customer-owned equipment, a cost borne by the Electric Department. A $30,000.00 bond was voted for to help defray the expense of the changeover. Also in 1931, Village officials voted not to sell the Electric Department to the Niagara, Lockport and Ontario Power Company, a proposition that had been under consideration for several years.

On June 20, 1961 the Village's contract with Niagara Mohawk was terminated, and a contract was signed with the Power Authority of the State of New York to furnish up to 2,000 kilowatts. A substantial rate reduction went into effect shortly thereafter, providing this Village with one of the lowest electric rates in the State, well below the national average.

Many improvements have been made to the electric system to bring better service at a lower cost to the residents and businesses of Mayville. Lines were rebuilt and primary voltage was changed from 2,400 volts to 4,800 volts in 1966. Also in 1966, an addition to the garage facilities enabled the Electric Department to better house trucks, equipment and supplies needed to serve the system.

Through the years, street lights have seen significant improvements. Back in 1943, street lighting circuits failed as a result of damage caused by a flood the previous year. Street light regulators were under 14 inches of water during that flood, causing switching equipment housed at the Morris Street powerhouse to subsequently fail.

The older series-connected street lighting was changed to individual incandescent fixtures having photoelectric controls that turned them on automatically when it was dark. The incandescent lights were phased out, although not entirely, with mercury vapor lights. In May of 1992 the Electric Department completed a project of replacing existing street lighting with 250-watt high-pressure sodium fixtures. This resulted in some 300 fixtures replacing a combination of 400 and 175 watt mercury lamps and a handful of remaining incandescent lamps. The newer high-pressure sodium vapor lamps are more efficient, producing more lumens per watt than the older lighting. During the summer of 1994 the Village installed new sidewalks in the main business district. Part of this project gave us some nostalgia as pedestal style street lighting complete with the familiar acorn globes were installed. Underground wiring was utilized and the fixtures incorporated high efficiency high-pressure sodium lamps.

As electrical demand continued to increase at a steady rate, improvements were made at the substation. In the 1960's substation capacity was doubled. In 1993 substation capacity was again increased with the addition of a 5,000 kVA load tap changing transformer. Work also began on a second new substation located on Valley Street. This substation was built with 5,000 kVA capacity at a distribution voltage of 8,320 volts in anticipation of again increasing distribution voltage. A 34,500 volt transmission line to connect the two substations was necessary. Unfortunately, problems with the re-built transformer added to the Lakeview Avenue substation developed, causing the unit to be returned to the manufacturer for repairs on two different occasions. The Lakeview transformer was configured with a dual voltage output to facilitate a changeover from 4,800 to 8,320 volts. Voltage conversion was completed in 1998.

In order to more closely monitor the distribution system, and to afford an opportunity to do "peak demand shaving" and load control, a computerized SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system began to be installed in 1993. The system will allow the Electric Department to realize savings in power purchased from the Power Authority (or other future suppliers), thus keeping costs passed along to customers as low as possible.

Computerization of customer accounts began in October of 1982. The computer equipment has been upgraded several times since that time, enabling staff to remain efficient, to be able to provide data needed for accounting purposes, and to allow immediate access to billing information when requested by customers. In 1996 the electric department served approximately 1,100 customers and purchased 25 million Kilowatt hours of power from the New York Power Authority. The base electric rate for residential customers is 3.4 cents per kWh.

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