NEW SUB-STATION WILL IMPROVE POWER SUPPLY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 89, 30 August 1950, Page 5

NEW SUB-STATION WILL IMPROVE POWER SUPPLY

All sections of the Whakatane Borough will benefit with a more efficient distribution of electricity when the new substation now being installed at King Street, Kopeopeo, is brought into operation within the next two to three weeks. The sub-station will be able to handle a greater load than the unit at present being used and is also expected to serve Whakatane for any normal expansion of the town for many years to come.

The job of piecing the large amount of intricate electrical equipment together is a big one and has been going on -for just over a week. Borough electrical staff had already prepared the building and site and had been waiting for the machinery over the past two years. Five Control Areas The sub-station when completed will give five separate control points to different areas in the borough. That is, any one of these five sections may be disconnected without disturbing the whole of the borough. This will be particularly invaluable during high tension repairs. At the present time there are only two control sections. The sub-station will handle and break down the 22,000 volts transmitted by aerial line from Edgecumbe. The power is broken down through the transformers to 3300 volts. It is then handled by the individual control units before it is transmitted to the distributing transformers situated about the town. From here the power is carried to consumers.

At a first glance the control panel of the new sub-station looks rather like a broadcasting transmitter. There are the usual dials, switches and levers that mean nothing to those who know little about electricity. But when the apparently meaningless jumble is explained a neat picture of the engineer's ingenuity forms and the switches and dials begin to tell their story. There are two main sections to the "sub", as the station is called by the men who attend it. There is the transformer that receives the main load and breaks down the high voltage before sending it on. From here it comes into the five different sections and distributed through the control panel. This is housed inside the building. There are seven sections in the panel, two being the main control units over the other five. There are duplicated controls throughout the feeder panels so that there is no possibility of one section breaking down and the power escaping. Fire Proof The whole of the control panel is constructed -of steel and each compartment is fire proof. Should anything go wrong on any section yoi the borough's power lines it is recorded in the station. The alarm is given automatically and staff are called to attend to the break.

The equipment is the \ most modern in New Zealand and cost about £IO,OOO. It was made in Sweden four years ago by Asea Electrical Company and arrived in New Zealand about two months ago. A Whakataneicarrying firm transported the five ton equipment from "Wellington, the journey taking two days. Just south of Ruapehu the truck was struck by a squall and there were some anxious moments for ttte driver as his vehicle swayed precariously on the road. New distributing sub-stations to handle the increase in electricity are now being constructed at various points in the borough. One has been completed in Bridge Street, but others are to be placed in James Street and Domain Road, while the units, in Stewart Street and "Valley Road are to be replaced. The sub-station is expected to be in full use by the end of the year.

Pressure Will be Relieved The new sub-station and other new electrical equipment now being installed at Whakatane will greatly relieve the presure on already overloaded installations. Because of the difficulty of getting replacements the borough sub-sta-tions have been operating in the past few months with a 150 per cent overload. The equipment has been ovejlopded for some years now and officers of the electricity department consider the town lucky Co have escaped with the relatively few breakdowns it has experienced.