GARY SKEEM: AN INDEPENDENT IDAHOAN

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Since moving water (from two year-round streams) was abundant on his land, the ingenious inventor opted for hydropower. At first Gary-who had by this time gotten his brother involved in the project-experimented with homemade water wheels (including undershot, overshot, and side-shot designs) but found that the attractive devices spun too slowly to make electricity and tended to ice up badly in the winter. So Gary began working with hydroturbines.

When the neophyte power producer finally got his first 15-KW Leffel turbine on-line, he discovered that his need for Utah Power and Light's electricity was just about gone. In fact, once Gary had installed an expanded battery bank, his family's utility consumption dropped from about 2,700 KW to only 12 KW per month! (Except for a few shutdown hours for adjustments, Mr. Skeem probably wouldn't have used any UP & L watts.) Unfortunately, what seemed like a real achievement-not to mention a tremendous cash and energy saving was soon to grow into a major confrontation between Gary and the utility.

The conflict started when the bill for that first "hydropowered" month arrived. Either the utility miscalculated or the meter was misread, because the charge was just about the same as in previous months. As it happened, Gary had been keeping close track of his meter's progress in order to monitor his new system's performance. So he called the UP & L office and informed them that he couldn't have used as many kilowatts as the bill claimed . . . since his home had been switched off their line for most of the month!

A day later a power company inspector dropped by the house while Gary was away, and a carpenter-who was working on the property-showed the UP & L man the generating setup. On the following Monday Gary got a call from that representative. The man complimented Mr. Skeem on the quality of his power system and asked if the Leffel turbine was likely to supply most of the family's electrical demands. Gary replied that the generator and batteries should take care of the bulk of their needs. This, the utility's employee informed Skeem, entitled the power company to levy a $1.50per-kilowatt demand service charge for standby service. (Since the Skeems' lines have a 200-ampere entrance, they had about 20 KW of potential use. That amounted to a $30 monthly charge, for nothing! Any power that they consumed would be billed for in addition to the surcharge . . . and not at the lower all-electric rate the Skeems had been paying.)

The ensuing conversation changed tone slightly and went something like this:

Gary: I wasn't aware of the standby charge.

UP & L: Well, that's the way it is.

Gary: That may be the way it is, but I'm not going to pay it.

UP & L: Then the only thing we . can do is jerk out your power lines.

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