ELECTRICITY TO BE RATIONED

Chronicle (Levin), 27 January 1949, Page 4

ELECTRICITY TO BE RATIONED

-,V, ■■III I. II — Board's Action Follows Deficit Of 1,000,000 Units

The Horowhenua Electric Power Board yesterday decided to introduce a system of individual rationing of electricity to consumers throughout its district. It will be on the basis of the consiimer's average consumption over the past three years, less five/ 10 or 15 per cent, as required, with 300 units per month 1 for waterheaters, and will apply to all consumers other tHan ■those exempt under a control order. " The implementatjon of the scheme was left in the hands of the executive officers and, when details are finalised, consumers will be required to keep within a certain individual allocation. Any consistent breaches will be met with strict penalties, but in special cases sympathetic eonsideration will be given to an increased quota. In due course consumers will be advised of their individual ration and the date when the scheme will come into operation.

Last year the board's consumption of 29,525,000 units excee'ded its allocation by ' more than 1,000,000 units, with the result that the five per cent. increase on the 1948 allocation for 1949 is already depleted by that amount. This leaves the board with less than l-£ per cent. increase on the 1948 allocation because the deficit has to be made up. The allocation, for 1949 is 29,927,000 units— barely 40.5,000 units more than last year's actual consumption. "We are .already down the drain and this is a 'matter of real urgency," said the chairman of tbe board, Mr. T. G. Vincent, when pointing out to members the nee'd for taking- immediate steps. After stating that some action wou'ld have to be taken to get the consumption down, Mr. Vincent said that as far as he could see this year would be easier- than the following two. He did not want-to see the switches pulled, thus cutti-ng off all power in the district, biit that was what the board was faced with. He then movefi the recommittal of the motion which was lost at the November meeting. . ' . At this stage Mr. H. Dustin asked leave to introduce, the motion, wnich was seconded ]^y Mr, R. O. Hornblow and finally passed1 in the form already mention'pd.' The various aspects causing the increased consumption „ were discussed before "the motion was put to the meeting. It was pointed out by the man-aging-secretary, Mr.' R. A. Fre'derikson, that the supply .to the dairy industry co'uld not be cut down. Asked whether the commercial supply ^would also be put on a quota, it was pointed out that Mr. Dustin's motion covered this' point. "I don't think you Will get anywhere with this thing because you have no penalties attached to it," said Major-General R. Young. He f elt that rationing should be implemente'd on a national scale. Once anr offender had used the power what was going to be done about it, he asked. Mr. Vincent: I agree that it is a national matter. Mr. Hornblow: We are trying toj do our best, but the Government is, not backing us up. It was the opinion of the chair-

man that radios were one of the main offenders in the matter and he t questioned the necessity for havmg broadcasting from 6 a.m. to midnight. "We are tol-d that .it is entirely in the hands of the consumer and that he neeck not listen. -How ridiculous! lf the stations are pn the air everyone will listen." Mr. Frederikson: It is fairly obvious that before this scheme can. be brought into operation and have any effeet, emergency steps will have to be taken to bring the load down. It was agreed that if necessary, feeder cuts would have to be ma'de until the scheme took effect. ' Discussing the question of penalties raised by General Young, it was pointed out that the manag-ing-secretary had- full powers to take any action necessary to penalise offenders. When the motion was put to the meeting, it was passed with one dissenting voice. Read That Meter! Householders who by yesterday's decision of the Horowhenua Electric Power Board are required to keej) a check on their consumption of electricity will need to be able to read their meters. " Advice on how to do this correctly is given by the managing-secretary of the board, Mr. R. A. Frederikson. The individual dialS must be read. The majority of meters consist of four dials, which are read in the following order, usually from fieft to right: Thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. Take notice of the direetion in which the hand is moving and note the last figure the hand has passed— not neeessarily the nearest one. The four figures will then give the meter reading. For instance, if the meter read 7473 and that figure was subtracted from the total of the previous month (i.e. 6731); the consumption since the previous reading would be indicated by the result (742 units).