DOMESTIC LOAD THE HEAVIEST.

Chronicle (Levin), 19 March 1947, Page 6

DOMESTIC LOAD THE HEAVIEST.

WELLINGTON, Mar. 18. Domestic. water heating is Ihe third lieaviest item of electric power conMiniption, according to tigures released loday by .Mr. H. H. Wylie, general .iianager of the Hawke's Bay Electric ,'ower Board, followiug a meeting of .he emergency committee of the Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities Association. It accounts for 25 pe.r ent of the power consumed. The only itenis which e.xceed this amount are doiuestie power 29 per cent, and electric motors 25.7 per cent. The relatively small amount.s needed for trams, street lighting and railways will probably come as a surprise to. most people. The distrilnition of the load is as follows: — Domestic purposes, 29 per cent. Electric motors, 25.7 per cent. Domestic water heating, 25 per cent, Commercial uses, 9.1 per cent. Commercial water heating, 7.6 pei cent. .Dairy water heating, 4.2 per cent. Trapis, 3 per cent. Railways, .77 per cent. Street lighting, .69 per cent. Mr. Wylie pointed out that the present crisis did not ceutre arouiul a peak load shortage as many people were prone to suppose but was a question ot saving units at anv time so that the drain on the generating plants would be reduoed, making possible the saving of water. A unit saved at any time of the day or night was an equally valuvaluable contriijution towards assist- . ing water storage at the dams. In reference to the justifieation in the present crisis for cutting off domestic water heating, Mr. Wylie re#erred to the difficuities and inequities of imposing quota cuts over the North Island in areas such as Hawke's Bay and Hutt Yallev. He said the main load was cause'd by domestic consumption and the increased load was due to that dem and. A cut in the domestic supply would merelv inerease the loading at some other time. If the people could not cook a meal or do ironing at a eertain hour, they would still use power for those purposes later. Cutting on a quota basis would fall heavier on areas which had seen rapid housing expansion than on older established parts where there had not been the scope for more connections and therefore the domestic load inerease had not been a fraetion of that. in the oxpanding aroas.