Not Providing Electricity Fast Enough

Chronicle (Levin), 30 September 1949, Page 3

Not Providing Electricity Fast Enough

WELLINGTON, Sept. 29. The new hydro. etations are not _ bexug designed'and built; rapidly enough to keep step with. :the still increasing demand for power. Outgide heip should be obtainad by the Govjerhment for design and construetion of more stations, since the present. organisation is inadequate to meet the country 's .requirements.- " These are the two main xecommendations made today by a panel of engineers in a report to the Power Boards ' and Supply AuthOrities ' Association conference. A year ago the engineers forecast an unavoidable continuation of restrictions upon the free use of electric power ana in the report they repeat that warning. Were ample power available, they state, the load would increase .at the rate oi 9 per cent yearly compounded, but under the circumstances brought about by station building lagging behind the steadily increased demand, consumption must be held to 4; per" cent .below its estimated natural increase in -the North Island for the next three yeaxs. The engineers . submitting the report for the North IslaUd'were -Messrs I. Jtf. liobinson (Hutt Valley), A. O. Glasse (Auckland), C. M. Gray (Waitemata, Auckland), L. B^Hutton (Wellington), F. Matthewson (Poverty Bay) and T. fc. Overton (North Auckland). They recommend the immediate ■ consideration of the erection of a. new Steam plant in Wellington and additions to the King's Wharf station. Auckland. The possibilities of a geothermal sta- 1 tion, they consider, should be enexgetically pursued although the report states it can ofler no immeaiate solution to the present power shortage. The report also recommends that the question of a large steam plant locatea on a coalfield, should be iuvestigated by experts. The report estimates' the North Island defieiency by 1955, between power available and natural (unchecked) load, at 432,000,000 units and states: "lf a dry early autumn similar to that ox 1948 is encountered with the low level of Lake Waikaremoana, then the position will be almost disastrous. ' ' A station equal in size to Karapiro (90,000 kilowatta), should be instaliett every two years, says the report.