The Possibilities of a Power Shortage

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22512, 21 September 1938, Page 10

The Possibilities of a Power Shortage

In his report to the Ashburton Power Board on the proceedings at the repent conference of the Power Boards' Association, Mr E. F. Nicoll said plainly that South Island power boards and supply authorities were by no means satisfied with official assurances that there is no danger, or very little danger, of a power shortage in the South Island in the next two or three years. It will be recalled that in July the general manager of the Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department, in a report to the City Council, predicted that, if consumption continued to expand at the present rate, there would be a power shortage in the Christchurch area in the winter of 1939 and an acute short-> age in the winter of 1940. 'The Minister for Public Works claims, a little' extravagantly, that his department has "established the fact" that power consumption cannot continue to increase at the rate shown over the last two years. Estimates and prophecies, however well based, do not establish facts; and in any case the available data seem to show that even if the present rate of consumption increase is not maintained there may be a shortage. Moreover, it is possibly significant that the chief electrical engineer of the Public Works Department, Mr F.'T.'M. Kissel, in his address to the conference of the Power Boards' Association, chose his words more carefully than did the

Minister. His comment on recent statements about the position in the South Island was that he was " more concerned about the prospective "shortage in the North Island than in the " South." Very properly, in view of their heavy responsibilities to the communities they serve, the South Island power boards and supply authorities are not disposed to accept these assurances without a more thorough examination of the position. In the Christchurch area, for instance, an interruption or shortage in the power supply affects not merely heating and lighting but also such vitally important services as water supply and drainage. Mr Nicoll points out that a shortage will not occur in the South Island if further consumption increase is normal, if there is enough water at Waitaki to serve the new units to be installed, and if there is no further trouble at Coleridge. These are very big " ifs."