THE HOKITIKA GUARDIAN & EVENING STAR. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1920 HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 October 1920, Page 4

THE HOKITIKA GUARDIAN & EVENING STAR. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1920

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER.

LAKE' COLERIDGE ELECTRIC LOWER SUPPLY. (Public Works Statement). The financial result of the operation of the Lake Coleridge system for the year ending 31st March, 1920, has been still more satisfactory than for the previous years. The power-house load lias been increased during the year to such an extent that at the end of the year if was carrying an overload of 1,400 horse-power, or 17 per cent. The revenue for the year was £45,831, and the expenses were as follows: £ Working expenses 17,759 Interest 16,803 Depreciation reserve ;.... 7,624 £42,246 The result of the year’s operations is thus a net profit of £3,585 towards the reduction of the deficit on the four previous years of working. This result is very satisfactory. ] From other points of view the results have been even more satisfactory. The output for the year from the powerhouse was over 33,000,000 units. To have generated tliis in a- large economical steam plant using the class of coal now available would have taken 45,000 tons of fuel, worth from £IOO,OOO to £120,000. But the steam plants that have actually been replaced by Lake Coleridge power were by no means as efficient as is assumed above, and m practical running they actually consumed up to three or four times the above amount of coal, or its value in oil, ■ kerosene, and petrol. Thus the saving in fuel to the public of Canterbury is probably in the neighbourhood of £300,000, for which they have oaid to the Department £45,831—-or, allowing for the distributing cost's of the twelve retailing authorities, about £IIO,OOO. The shipping and handling alone of the above 45,000 tons of coal per year (150 tons per day) would have been a large item. And, apart from the saving, the comfort that has been given in ten thousand homes, the increasing efficiency in dozens of workshops and factories, and the security and reliability of the hydro-electric power supply during the trying period of the railway restrictions and coal shortage, are advantages of even greater importance to . the consumers than the cash saving of £200,000. As the result of this success the demand now in .sight is far in excess of the supply, and even of the capacity of the scheme as now laid out—with Hj total of 16,000 horse-power. Plans are in hand for further extension to a capacity of an additional 26,000 horsepower (20,000 kilowatts), with distribution lines to Banks Peninsula, Kowai County, Oxford, Ellesmere County, Methven, Ashburton aiul Timaru. It is anticipated that the fifth unit (4,000 h.p.), the pipe-line for which is now under construction, will be completed by the winter of 1921. This will only serve to relieve the overload on the present plant, to give a reasonably safe margin' of standby capacity (2,,Q0Q h.p.), and to enable a few urgent consumers who have been waiting for some time to be connected up. Contracts were recently placed for the generating plant for the final .unit (4,000 h.p.), and it is anticipated that this will be ready for operation for the winter of 1922. One thousand horsepower of the capacity of this unit is to lie reserved for the South Canterbury line. liORAHORA POWER STATION. During the year the Horaliora power station was purchased from the Wailii Gold-mining Company, and was operated on behalf of the Department for the last five months of the financial year. The maximum load reserved for the Waihi Mine is 3.030 h.p., out of a total plant capacity of 8,400 h.p. Allowing one unit of 1,400 h.p. as a standby and 1,300 h.p. to cover pedal industries mid losses, this leaves 2,400 h.p. available for distribution by the local authorities. Four Electric power Boards have been formed to undertake this distribution —viz., Thames Valley, Cambridge, To Awamutu, and Central—together with the Hamilton and Waihi Boroughs and as soon as the necessary plant is available for effecting the distribution the available power will be rapidly absorbed. The greater part of the material for the distribution lines has already arrived, but owing to shipping difficulties the delivery of the poles has only recently commenced, and until ipore are available it will be impossible to commence the ejection of the lines. An agreement has also been negotiated with the Waihi Grand Jynctiop Gold Co.mpany under which their spare steam plant is to be a.t the disposal of the Government over peirods of .heavy load or of breakdown, .thus enabling, the spare unit of 1,400h.p. at Horaliora, to be put into regular service, and rendering this additional output available for sale. ELECTRIC POWER BOARDS. The function of the Government in connection with hydro-electric supply consists essentially in the constructionof main generation stations and the main transmission-lines and substances from which the power will be sold in bulk to the local distributing autlion-

ties. The latter will lie left the duty of reticulation and retail sale. ,Tho Government policy will be to throw upon local organisations practically the whole business side of the undertakings other than the primary generation, high tension transmission, and sale in hulk, in the past the only local authorities nvai)abje have been the Borough and County Councils, hut in order to provide a stronger and a specialised organisation the Electric power Boards Act, 1918, .was passed. This Act provides that several adjacent local districts may unite and set up an elected Power Board, with rating powers. The provisions of this Act have now been taken advantage of by ten electric power districts. Although the Act provides for inner and outer areas, most of the Boards have taken in the whole of their district as an inner area irrespective of the density of settlement, thus expressing their'confidence in the development of the back country and in its settlement by farmers who will he sufficiently progressive to make full use of the advantages of electric power supply.

With regard to the future the principles on which the boundaries of electric power districts should be determined arc not set out in the Act, but under clause 3 the responsibility of deciding whether proposed boundaries are desirable or otherwise is cast on the Governor-General in Council. Hitherto no amendment has been made in the districts as sought in the petitions submitted, but it is obvious that if the whole Dominion is to he dealt with in the best maimer possible it is essential drawn up. This has been done, and in future it will be necessary for the petitions to be submitted to the Minister for approval before they arc circulated, and any necessary alterations made in the boundaries. Difficiilties will probably lie encountered in the districts which include the larger of the powersupply undertakings, owing to the fact that country distribution, though the most important part of the Power Board’s activities, and the most profitable from tjie national point of view, cannot he as remunerative as the city supply because of the longer lines that are required. The cities and larger towns, however, must realise the extent to which they are dependent for their prosperity on the country business, and co-operate heartily in comprehensive systems even including in each case substantial portions of less remunerative country reticulations. Five of the Power Board districts already constituted have submitted their loan proposals to the ratepayers, amounting in all to £1,980,000. This amounts to over £2O per head of the populations of the districts concerned, and it gives some indication of the future extent and importance of the Elecric-power Board activities. The almost unanimous votes by which these loan proposals have been carried indicate, however, the public opinion in the matter. OTHER LOCAL ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY AUTHORITIES. There are now seventy-one ' local electric supply authorities operating in the Dominion, with a total capacity of 45,805 kilowatts, as compared with 43,899 kilowatts last year. The demand for additional power has been very urgent, but the extensions have in most cases been delayed owing to the difficulty iu obtaining plant and materials. It is now expected that with the reversion to more normal conditions these difficulties be overcome. Each of the main cities is proposing large extensions. The seven main local authorities have proposals in hand which will add 33,500 kilowatts to their installed capacity—at a proposed capital outlay of £1,582,000. In each case there is prevision that the' proposed plant shall work in with the Government hydro-electric supply when available. GOVERNMENT HYDRO-ELECTRIC PROPOSALS. The main Government scheme pieposed for each Island consists of a complete high-tension transmission-system connecting all the main points of supply of the Electric-power Board districts and of the local electric power authorities. These transmission systems will b© fed from three or four large hydroelectric power sources in eaclrcase, and will also-be connected up with, the chief existing local sources of supply, including both the hydro-electric and steam power plants already in operation. Hence the urgent necessity of standardising the system of electrical distribution throughout the Dominion. In all recent installations the standard threephase fifty-cycle system has been adopted, and several of the older plants are being changed over to tliis system in order to enable them to take advantage economically of the Government supply. Out of the fifty-five generating stations now in operation, twenty-two are operating on the standard system, comprising 26,690 kilowatts, or 58.3 per cent of tlic installed capacity of the Dominion. The main sources of supply selected for the North Island are Mangahao (24,000 h.p.), Arapuni (96,000 h.p., capable of extension to 162,000 h.p.), and Waikaremoana (40,000 h.p., capable of extension to 136,000 h.p.). In addition supplementary supplies will be obtained from Horaliora power Jiouse (8,400 h.p.), Wairua Falls (2,600 h.p.), New Plymouth Borough (ultimately 8,000 h.p.), and a standby service from the large steam plants at Auckland (ultimately 26,000 h.p.) and Wellington (12,000 h.p.). Regarding the North Island, the construction of Mangahao is now well in hand. The investigation of the Aynpufti dam site is practically completed, and work will he commenced at Waikaremoana forthwith. For the main transmission lines the specifications for tjie materials have been drawn up and the delivery of the poles has commenced. Provided that no undue delay occurs in the delivery of plant from abroad, and coal for driving the construction plant is obtainable, and cement, the supply from Mangahao can be made available within three years. The construction plant at Waikaremoana (1,000 horse-power.) lias been designed to form part of the permanent installation and to he largo enough to give a local supply in the meanwhile to Wairoa County aiid Borough. This construction plant should be in operation within two years, and the main supply from Waikaremoana within two years thereafter. The reliability of the foundations of the Arapuni dam has now been fully

investigated, and in view of the importance of the work it is proposed to refer the whole of the data collected to a committee of engineers for a final decision. In regard to the South Island the details of tlie transmission system and supply points have not yet been laid out, but the system will incorporate the existing power plant at Lake Coleridge, the Dunedin City Council’s plant at Waipori Falls, and the proposed Southland Electric power Board’s station at Lake Monuwai, each of which should lie developed as early as possible to its fullest extent. Proposals are now being investigated for the extension of the Lake Coleridge plant to the full capacity of the site (42,000 h.p.) and the survey and construction of the line to South Canterbury is in hand. Surveys of the ITawca-Wanaka and Teviot River schemes have been carried out to locate the most economical source of supply in .Central Otago in order to complete tfic system in the southern end of the Island, and surveys will be put in hand as early as possible to locate the best sources of supply for the northern, end (Marlborough, Nelson, and Buffer districts), and the western districts (Grey and Westland), and for laying out transmission routes to complete the whole system on the same lines as in the North Island. The estimates of 1918 for the North Island system (160,000 h.p..) amounted to “£7,303,402. At the present enhanced costs of labour and material this will considerably exceed £10,000,000, and the South Island system will probably cost almost as much.

The prosecution of these works at a satisfactory rate of progress will caff for more skilled and unskilled labour than is at present available; hut it is hoped that' the efforts'of my colleague the Minister of Immigration will result in the early arrival in New Zealand of a sufficient number of suitable men. The success of the schemes already in operation, and the ever-increasing difficulties in obtaining supplies of coal and fuel oil, have combined to create an insistent, widespread, and fully justified demand for the immediate development of New Zealand’s water-power resources. Financial considerations require that schemes once launched should be brought to a paying stage as quickly as the available supply of labour and material will permit. Special officers, engineers and other experts together with the necessary office assistance, have therefore been, as I have already stated, to deal specially with electric undertakings. The whole of the energies of these officers w iff he concentrated on the completion of the schemes, and on the supervision and the assisting of the Power Boards and other distributing authorities. As circumstances require, their numbcis will be added to. Further legislation dealing with hydro-electric matters is under careful consideration''. In the meantime it is proposed to set up an advisory Board consisting of business men of standing to advise the Government on various questions connected with the business management of its powei undertakings, and on questions of policy in connection with the development, distribution, and sale of hydro-electric power.