Application of storage batteries to regulation of alternating-current systems

The general function of a storage battery in connection with an alternating-current system is the same as in a direct-current system, namely, to relieve the power plant and in some cases the transmission lines of the fluctuations of load, permitting the generating machinery and conductors to be utilized to the greatest advantage and at maximum economy by subjecting them to a steady load equal to the average, instead of a load whose fluctuations in some instances, as in heavy interurban railway work and in many industrial plants, are exceedingly rapid and severe. In many cases where alternating currents are developed, the advantages of a regulating storage battery are even more pronounced than in direct-current service, for the following reasons: 1. Alternating-current generation is particularly applicable to long distance interurban railway work where steam railroad conditions prevail, involving heavy units operating at comparatively infrequent intervals, producing fluctuations of load abnormally high as compared with the average. These conditions are comparable, except on a largely magnified scale, with those obtaining on the four or five car electric roads so common in the early history of electric railways.