TWO POWER SCHEMES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 202, 21 May 1920, Page 7

TWO POWER SCHEMES

Sir—After all that lias been publish-' ed in the Press during the last month) on the matter of power schemes for! the city, it Is a pleasure to read youri article of May 19, "Two Power, Schemes." _ The value of your ' stat<* ments lies in the fact that they are# based on the opinions of experts, and' in face of tlio figures you have given! and which have no doubt been welt considered by our- council and its en-j gineers, the idsa of spending some half! a million of money upon, a mew steam! station is'absurd. I agreo with you entirely on the! amount of power which you say will! meet the city's requirements for .aj great many years, and even though the; power load connected should increase' 6000 horsepower in the next five years' the addition of 1000 horse-power to 1 the present plant would be sufficient to' meet tha demand, this is due to the] diversity factor, which is present in alLj electric power schemes and is brought; about by the fact that only a portion of the total connected load is operating; at_full power at the same instant. -In; Dunedin, where, as you state, the cur-! rent for power is cheaper than in Wel-1 lington, the total connected load is l 30,01)0 horse-power, yet owing to tho di-j ra-sifcy factor the total demand on tho station is only 8000 horse-power. Christchurch is m a very similar position,i and even in .Wellington the total con-j necteil motor load is something over! 6000 horse-power, and yet I would guar-! anteo the greatest demand for current to supply this is (only from '750 to! 1000 horse-power. It is easy to soft from tlieso figures that with a supply ofj Beveti or eight thousand horse-power from! Mangahao our present plant is capable] of carrying us on for a great manyyears. Unfortunately, howover, owing to the delay' in construction of Manga: hao it will' bo necessary to add furtheii plant 'to tho present station at Harris Street, and no doubt this 6ite will bo! tho combined lighting _,and tramway, power station. At this"sife there should be amplo room for another 10,000 horse-j power if required. | The chief objection to the installing of a now steam station is tho amount of money involved and the large capital charges which must necessarily result,' for whatever saving might be made with high pressure isteam would be swamped thereby. It will be interest ing to seo what Mr, Morton and his engineers havo to say on the matter,' but they will do well to bo guided by results of other cities and by Mri Parr.7, whoso advice, owing to his high standing as an engineer, deserves every consideration—l am, etc., i SPARKS, i