ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22508, 16 September 1938, Page 7

ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY

Huge Additions For

North Island

EXTRA

LINES PLANNED

(PEESS A.SSOCIATXOJI TELEGRAM.)

WELLINGTON, September 15

An outline of undertakings which are being carried out by the Public Works Department in the supply of electricity in different parts of New Zealand was given by the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) speaking at the annual conference of the Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities’ Association of New Zealand, which opened in Wellington to-day. The Minister referred in particular to provision which was being made for a new 45,000 kilowatt generating station which would be constructed below the present site at Waikaremoana. The work would necessitate a tunnel one and a half miles, long. ' Other works included the completion of two new units or 21,000 kilowatts each at Arapuni and a new unit of 15,000 kilowatts which was being installed at the existing power station at Waikaremoana. Two new units of 15,000 kilowatts had been ordered for Waitaki. A main transmission line of 110,000 volts was being constructed between Arapuni and the Bay of Plenty and a similar line was being provided to interconnect Melling and Masterton and make a third line to Wellington. A main transmission line of 66,000 volts was being constructed between Lake Coleridge and the West Coast (Arahura), and a similar line was being put through between Arahura and Blackwater. A main transmission line of 110,000 volts between Dunedin and Gore would inter-connect < the Waitaki and Southland systems to provide for, further growth of the load, said the Minister. ‘

Preliminary work in hand included the duplication of the existing 11,000 volt line between Napier and ' Woodville, the erection of further double circuit 110,000 volt lines between Arapuni and Auckland and between Arapuni and Bunnythorpe by the main trunk towns and the provision of two further units of 21,000 kilowatts each at Arapuni. Investigation was' being carried out. for a further power site on the banks of the Waikato river above Cambridge where is was hoped to install a plant with a capacity for 60,000, kilowatts.

NEARLY £20,000,000 INVESTED ; .

INCREASES IN THE LAST THREE YEARS

IFRBS9 ASSOCIATION t*LIOR*U.) WELLINGTON, September 15. Details of the amount of electricity supplied by the Public Works Department during the .ast three years, and also of the progress made generally, were given by the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) at the opening of the annual conference of the Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities in Wellington to-day. The Minister said that between March, 31,1935, and March 31, 1936, 1,250,000,000 units of power were generated, the increase being 36 per cent. Electric ranges installed in the period totalled 64,408 (increase, 62 per cent.); water heaters, 77,353 (44 pfer cent.), and milking machines 22,711 (32 per cent!). There were 342,334 consumers in 1935 and ,388,580 in 1933, the Increase being -13 per cent. ’,; The capital invested by the Public Works Department in various undertakings for the supply of electricity amounted to £12,903,410 in 1935 and by 1938 it had Increased to £15,536,029 (20 per cent.). Supply authorities had invested £19,920,534 by 1935, and this increased to £19,991,313 during the three years under review. The total amount invested by the department and supply authorities was £35,527,342. “The fact that the capital investment of the Public Works Department has increased by 20 per cent., while that of the supply authorities shows little increase, is because during the period under review the capital expenditure of the old Southland Power Board on its power, plant, and the distribution and power plant of the Grey Power Board, have been taken over by the Government, thus increasing the capital expenditure of the department and reducing that of the supply authorities,” said the Minister.