STANDBY PLANT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20106, 9 December 1930, Page 11

STANDBY PLANT.

COMPLETION EXPECTED BT END OF MAY. The stand-by plant for genera electricity for Canterbury, to bo erected at Lyttelton, will probably be oonir pleted by the date anticipated about the end of nest May—according to a letter from the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. W. B. Taverner, received yesterday by Mr J. Roy Smith, secretary to the Canterbury Chsmbear of Commerce. Efforts to hare the plant oompleted a month earlier than that date are being made. The letter is in reply to enquiries made by the Electricity Vigilance Committee of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturers Association. It state? that the present position with regard to the scheme that a site has been selected at Lyttelton aud negotiations for buying it are in hand. Preliminary plans tor the machinery are complete and will be* posted to the engineer in charge of the work this week. The plans are nor final nor complete, as such plans cannot made until further particulars are available from the makers. However, they are sufficiently complete to allow the major part of tho work to proceed as soon as the negotiations for the purchase of the site are coinpletedThe design of the building is rapidly approaching completion, and tii« Musister thinks it can be safely promised that the design will he in the bands of the engineer bv the middle of nextweek. ° Thus, failing any unforeseen occurrence, it may be anticipated thai the new station will be in operation bv the due date —about the end ot Vlav, 1931. The committee is approaching toe Minister to ascertain if it is possible to expedite the completion of tho work, so that the plant may be «• operation, at the latest, by the end of next Anril, as it recognises that tho end of May will be only three week< from the shortest day. when the peaload of the year may be expected.