A Bright Future

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 89, 1 May 1937, Page 9

A Bright Future

ELECTRICITY IN H.B. Outline of Power Board's Activities PURfHASE OF SUPPLY Though the prospects for the future are' bright a? far as electricity in the Hawke's Bay district is concerned, It ie not anticipated that there will ho any big reduction in the charges this coming year as was the case last year. This announcement was made by Mr, H. H. Wylie, sqcretary of the Hawke's Bay Electric Power Board, in the course of an address to the Hastings Rotary Club yes terday. Mr. Wylie said that the Power Board was part of the comnaunity, and it was endeavouriug to carry out its service for the benqiit- of cverybody in the district. It had a raised capital of £350,000, the greater part of this being from various insurance companies. The interest rate was certainly rather high, in view of the recent reductions tliat were made in aceordance with legisiation, because that legislation was not operative on these loans. "In spite of that, however, the prospects for the future are very bright," he said. He pointed out that the board had accumulated in a reserve eome £44,000 and was paying off about £8000 a year on the loans. Last year, after making allowances for depreciation, maintenance- and repayment of loans, the board had shown a profit of £10,500 and this had been dissipated in reduced charges to consumers. During the year just. ended the revenue had been approsimately £87,000 frpm tbe saies, and it wae estimated that there would *be a profit of about £5000. "The board eannot divert its mouey to any purpose ontside electricityj" he said, 4 'and in coasequenee there are only two ways in which it ean use its surpias money. Oue is by xedueing charges to the consumers, and the other is in extending its reticulation. It hae been fouad, however, that yrhm the charges are reduced, there is increased loading, I eannot hold out great hopes of there being any big reduetion iti the charges this year as was the case last year," h© added, "Only & smaii portion of the burden of increased costs and higher wages wae borne last year, and in consequence this year's returns are consider ably lower."

Hastings Headquarters. Mr. Wylie pointed out that the board had decided tp move its head ofiice from Napier to Hastings., and for this purpose it had purchsed land in Hastings and wae now proceeding with the erection of a store and* offices, estimated to cost in the vicinity of £13,000. "The inoney for this work has been provided out of the reserve fund, the accumulations of the past," he said. Begarding the flnancing of the country reticulation, the speaker said tbat the first step taken when reticulation oxtenaion is proposed is to call a nieeting* of settlers in the district and to obtain from them a guarantee for 15 per cent. of the capital cost of the proposed extensions. From this you will see that the board does not extend its lines to nonpayable areas, as I arn afraid was done by certain boards in the past," he said. Mr, Wylie Said that there had been some criticism levelled at the board regarding the' delay in the reticulation in certain country distri-cts. The main trouble is the delay in the arrival of the poles necessary for these works. Orders have been placed, eome well over a year ago, for 1000 poles from Australia, but so far only 100 have ar rived. Purchase of Power. The board, he said, employed a staff of over 60 and possessed 15 motor vehicles. All the outside staff members wero experts, it being eesential that they should be owing to the nature of their work. The power was purchased from the Public Works Department on the maximum demand basis, and the highest this has ever been was 5310 k.v.a., this limit being reached about two weeks ago. The ppwer was generated at four centres in the North Island — W aikar emoana, Mangahou, Arapuni and horopito— -and all .feed the main network system. They are so linked that it is possible that the oJeetricity generated at Auckland could serve Hawke's Bay, and the power was carried on wire3 of 110.000 voltage. The Hawke's Bay Board .bought its electricity at Redcliffe, -where it was transformed from 110,000 to 11,000 volts, and then carried all over the country after being broken down to as low as/230 volts. Hastings 's supply of electricity came to Stortford Lodge sub-station on 11,000-volt wires and was broken down there to 3300 volts. It was then taken} either by overhead, or underground wirets, to the power house and then distributed to the various sub-stations in the borough . The reason for the reduetion I from Stortford Lodge to the power house was that it was possible to insulate 3300 volt wires, but not 11,000volt Wires. The maximum demand for the past quarter was 3510 k.v.a., find this meant an expenditure of £10,600 for the three months, The total for the year would be something like £40,000, which was a pretty big sum to send out of the district. As indicating the inereasing popularity of electricity,* Mr. Wylie said that the number of consumers in the board 's' distriet had increased from 6836 in 1936 to 7500 this year.' The number of ranges in use had gone from 799 to 1073 and water heaters from 760 to 1130.