START ON NEW LINE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 72, 22 September 1930, Page 11

START ON NEW LINE

POWER FOR HUTT VALLEY

For some months past the Hutt Valley Power Board has been working under considerable difficulty because its business has grown to such an extent that the 11,000 volt power lines from Khandailah to the valley have become greatly overloaded... -To the consumer this has meant that- the Toltago supplied him has often: ■ dropped noticeably below what; it "should : be, and to the board it has meant • heavy loss in power received■•;■.(as: against power board at the Government station at Khandailah), • and consequently financial loss.- - ■.. " .•;;';' ■;-,: .

Within a few months this ■ difficulty will be removed, for the Public Works Department has made a. start upon, the construction . of - a ■ new.-.: - : power-:-.litre which will be capable ..of carrying: all the power ■ required, with a considerable margin. The main camp for .the men has already been pitched off the. Hutt road, about midway between Ngahauranga and Petone.: At the same time the Public Works Department is estab: lishing a new sub-station on a ; Biver Board reserve a little beyond': the Melling bridge, on the Hutt side of the river, aad thus the Power Board will pick up its supply at a point near the centre of demand.

The transmission line work will be largely in advance of requirements, for heavy steel towers are to be erected' in place of wooden poles, but later on this section will link np with a main transmission line which will come down from the Waikaromoana-Mangahao system through the Wairarapa,- bringing power at 110,000 volts on an alternative route to the ' Bunnythorpe-Khan-dallah route. For the time being, however, the supply from Khandallah to the neV Melling sub-station will be at 11,000 volts.