BULK POWER CHARGES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 185, 23 August 1937, Page 10

BULK POWER CHARGES

Our Own Correspondent.)

Central H.B. Remit for Conference

(From

WAIPUKURAU, Saturday. "That the Government be urged to reduce bulk supply charges, with the provision that any such reduction shall be ntilised by the supply authorities as follows: Say, 50 per cent. for the benefit of present' cOnsumers, and 50 per cent. for the purpose Of extesnding th© benefits of electrical energy to sparseiy-popuHated areas. ' ' Tho above is tho tcxt of & remit, approved at yc?terday'a meeting of tho Central Hawko's Bay Power Board, to bo sent to tho Powbr Boards' Conference in Octobcr. The chairman, Mr A, 0> Russell, was the mover^ and Atr W. A. Chambers tho secondor. Tho board unanimously dccidcd that the remit go forward. In connection with tho questiOn of bulk charges, Mr F. T. M. liussell, ehief electricaL engineev of the Publie Works DOpartment, Wellington, wrolo acknowlcdging a lotter from the board in whieh the lowering of bulk supply charges had boen requosted. Mr Fowler, in his lotter to tho departmcnt, had pointed otit that the fcOst of energy purchaeed by the board from the department absorbed 83.79 phr cent. of the total of tho itcms of oxponditure shown on a grajih whieh was enelosed. Since tho board had Commeneed distribution of energy in this district in 1925, the secretary 's ■ letter continued, . i;t had made very substantial rodfletions indeed to all classes of consuiners. Despite this fact, it was paying to-day to the acpartment exactly the same price it had paid for its energy nearly twelve years ago. It had been the board 's expcrience that reduced priees had resulted in increased consumption, and it was suggested that the same expOrienC'O would be the lot of the depaftment if it saw its way clear to make a reduction in the bulk charges. The chief engineer'S reply stated that the board 's contention that a reduction in priees would be followed by an increase in saies was, on the xetail side of tho business, true — with Certain liinitations. At the same time, the board must rhmember that the dOpaTtment had ofiered a very favourable rate to power boards for a 1 consideTable amount of years. While this rate had beOn such that the department itself had not been ablo to aecumulate any profit, the various power boards, almost without exception, had been able progreasively to rpduce their selling priees. He (the engineer) thought that the tendency to ineredse saies depended to a greater oxtent on national prosperity than on dny slight reduction in selling costs that might f bllow any Teduction in bulk supply charges. In fact, the department had direct evideneo that certain supply authorities buying power from the department actually reduced their demands, although they might have increased it at no additional* expense whatevcr. The engi'necr coneluded that ho would koep the representations in mind when tho question of any revi'slon of bulk supply charges eaino uuder cohsideration. The letter 4vas rcceived.