THE CHANGE-OVER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 139, 9 December 1929, Page 12

THE CHANGE-OVER

NOW WELL AHEAD

TWO YEARS' MORE WORK

THE PBESENT POSITION

The change-over of the city's many thousands of electrical installations, large and small, and the reconditioning of street* reticulation is now very well ahead.

The lieenee under which the council is empowered to make the change from 105 volts to 230 volts dates from November, 1925, but actasKy tho preliminaries wero under way In the beginning of that year. A ten-year programme was mapped out with a general plan of dealing first with'1 tho residential areas and taking the midcity district towards the end, but today, after not quite five years, all the outer suburbs are completed and a great deal of tho city work is done. Probably a couple of years' more work at the present rate will see the changeover ended, three years inside the estimated time.

About 150 meu are busy in various parts of the city, and that number has remained roughly constant. To the householder the rewiring or furnishing up of inside installations, the refitting of switchboards, fitting of new elements in the family iron and the radiator, new globes for old, and the arguments which naturally go with some or all of these points are the big things in the change-over, but to the department the renewing of street cabling and reticulation to handle the new voltage and the enormously in-, creased demand is a very considerable part of the job, even if it is not so much argued over. As a matter of fact, the relations between consumers and departmental officers are generally a good deal more friendly than one might expect from a situation which requires the consumer to pay up when he was quite satisfied with the old conditions. There have, of course, been differences of opinion, but that they are capable of being smoothed out rea-~ sonably and satisfactorily to everyone concerned has been shown hy the fact that not one case has so far been laid before the Appeal Board, which was set up a couple of years ago for tho sole purpose of deciding these disputes.

ROSENEATH AND BROOKLYN.

The biggest district jobs in hand at present are in Roseneath and Brooklyn. In Roseneath the whole of the reticulation is completed, and the men are now busy inside changing over the individual installations and connecting them up with the new street mains. Brooklyn is well ahead, the outside work is finished, ami about 1000 houses are on the new voltage. This area should be finished ■ with by about the end of March.

When Boseueath is finished the men will work round Oriental Bay, where already a good many places are supplied with 230-volt power. From there they will move over to the western slope of Mount Victoria, i.e., between Austin street and Cambridge terrace. This part of the town presents heavy going for the wiremen; as many of the houses are old a good deal of renewal work will be required. Very, few applications have been received by the Department for permission to install electric ranges in this part of tho town, and the result is that thero are fewer 230-volt services reaching into this area than in most other districts before the changeover reached them seriously.

The Brooklyn gang will, at the end of March or thereabouts, move down to Berhampore, south of Athletic Park, and finish the work there. In order to. give service to various , industries and to permit the installation of cookers and other electrical gear in the homes, a good deal has already been I done in that district.

CITY PREMISES.

The change-over map, with the 230 volt areas in red, shows very few city blocks not painted in. or at least outlined. As new buildings have gone up or substantial alterations havo been made, wiring, power plant, etc., have been brought up to date and a great number of business houses have not waited for a demand to be made, but have requested that the work should be proceeded with. In old buildings, or those which, are likely to be remodelled in the near future, the old power remains, for to insist upon a renewal under such circumstances would mean wasted expense.

A few eases where the new lines do not reach the requirements of consumers for special service have been met by installing temporary equipment to transform the 105 volts power up to 230 volts in order that the appliances will not have to be scrapped or reconditioned when the change-over docs reach such areas. Such cases as those, however, aro becoming rarer, and once the western slope of Mount Victoria is dealt with it may be said that jevery part of the city will have been reached by the new services.

WHY THE CHANGE-OVER?

Every so often—very often, in fact —the question is asked: "Why the change-over at all?" The answer, very briefly, is that power may be more cheaply distributed at 230 than at 105 volts because a greater amount of power may bo transmitted at 230 volts than at 105 volts over cabling of a fixed diameter (resulting, in a large city, in a great saving in reticulation material), the number of street transformers is reduced, and economies are effected in other directions.

The question which is prompted by that reply is to this effect: "That' 3 all very well to the department, but what do we get out of it?" To which the further reply is that the department's saving in distribution costs will eventually become a saving to the consumers generally, through reductions i» the charges for power.

The Electricity Department's finances are, even with the heavy drain of the council's share of the changeover upon them, already in a very sound and satisfactory state—so much so that during recent years the council has taken from the gross profits a con-, siderable bite for city development, apart altogether from electrical activities—and with the change-over completed tlie yearly results promise exceedingly well.