ELECTRIC POWER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4837, 1 June 1925, Page 2

ELECTRIC POWER.

THE THAMES VALLEY BOARD. ANNUAL REPORTS. At last Tuesday's board meeting at Tc Aroha the heads of departments of the Thames Valley Electric Power Board submitted reports for the year. The annual report of the manager (Mr R. Sprague) stated, inter alia, that the amount of loans sanctioned liy ratepayers to date Was £700,000, of which £100,009 had not been arranged for. The rales, inteiest, and sinking fund on loans already raised amounted to £41,709 13s 6d a year. The -total revenue from sales of electricity for the year in towns and districts on meter amounted to £23,331 9s lOd, and flat rate charges totalled £35.671 9s. making the total revenue £59.002 lOd. Expenditure in the income and expenditure account totalled £32,055 ,10s 7d, which included £21,281 19s 3d paid to the Public Works Department for power, the balance, £10,773 Ils 4d, being made up by maintenance, discount, salaries, and general administration expenses. The revenue obtained during 1924-25 was £99,10'7 ss, compared with £27,057 Ils Id in 1922. Expenditure over the. same period was shown as £55,047 2t.s 6d, as against £27,548 17s 5d During the year 1213 motors were installed", of which 1083 were 2-h.p. milking motors. The board’s staff had actually installed 373 motors during the year. The estimated revenue from electricity for the year ending March 31, 1926, was £74,000. Ample stocks of transformers and reticulation material were on hand or ordered, and on the present appearances there ishould be no difficulty t.h'is year in connecting consumers to the mains before next milking season. ENGINEERS’ REPORT. Messrs Gauvain and McLeod’s report included the following :— “A considerable amount of work hits been carried out during the year, not only in the construction of new lines, but in the connection of new consumers to these, and to lines which had already been constructed. An interesting feature is that some sections, which in the previous year seemed impossible of profitable reticulation for a considerable time to come, have increased in their demand so such an extent that construction has been warranted. It appears reasonable to believe that the- availability of electric power has been a very considerable feature in the development of the area.

"There has been a considerable increase in load and revenue during the past year, and the results may be considered satisfactory. The amount paid to the Public Works Department for power is a lower percentage of revenue (36 per ent.) than was the case last year (38 per cent.), or in any previous year, but it may reasonably be anticipated that this proportion will be still further decreased in the future.

"The load connected during the year consisted largely of milking machines, and on account of the low diversity of this class of load by itself, and is comparatively short working time, our annual load factor is slightly less than last year, as also is our diversity factor. Daily load curves have been constructed which show th© variation in the demand for power throughout the 24 hours. They indicate clearly that the peaks are caused by the milking load, and that any loads outside peak hour would be an asset. The board has recently arranged tariffs which will make electric cooking an attractive proposition to the consumer, and has fixed a very low rate for hot water supply. The cooking load will be largely an off-peak load and the water heating entirely an off-peak load, and they will tend to alter the load curve of the system in a. desirable manner.

“During the year a considerable amount of work has been done in overhauling the lines, and it is pleasing to record that major stoppages have been comparatively few. "The Public Works Department is connecting the Tauranga McLaren’s Falls power station with Waikinb, and is making arrangements for the continuation of. this 50,000-volt. line across the Hauraki Plains to Bombay, on the main Auckland-Arapuni power line. This work will be of great advantage to the whole of the Auckland district, in that greater security of supply will be obtained, but it will be of distinct advantage to the northern portion of the board’s area in that a tapping point will be made available somewhere near Ngatea. Theie are now two supplies being taken at points isolated at present from the board’s main system, namely, at Waihi and Arapuni. Under the special circumstances of .these cases different arrangements had to be made for the. purchase of power These have now been completed, and are satisfactory. “The total circuit miles of transmission lines constructed and in operation is 1223, made up as follows : 11,000 voltage, 329 miles ; 3300 voltage, 139 ; low tension lines, 400 ; high tension phone lines, 105; service lines, 250’ miles. This is an increase in the number of circuit miles of approximately 18 per cent, over last year’s total. In connnection with the high tension telephone service, there are 28 telephone stations in operation.

“The total number of power transformers operating on the board’s lines is 256, with a capacity of 6141 k.v.a., or an average of 24' k.v.a. per transformer. “The number of consumesr receiving a supply from the board’s mains is as follows: Meter rate consumers, 1441; flat rate consumers, 1920'1 Thames Borough consumers, 955; Te Aroha Borough consumers, 578 ; making a total of 4894 consumers. This represents an' increase of 20 per cent, in the number of consumers as compared with the number receiving.supply on March 31, 1924, but the increase In the board’s area alone, apart from Thames and Te Aroha

boroughs, was 26.7 per cent, for the year.

“Motors operating in the district excluding those in the .Thames aAd Te Aroha boroughs, totalled 1508, comprising 1083 milking motors, using 1980 k.w.; 130 general farm motors, using 91 k.w.; and 295 industrial motors, using 2855 k.w.; the power used amounting to 4926 kw. The average power taken by each motor if worked at full load would be 3.26 k.w., or approximately 4.4-h,p. Included in .the above consumers are 16 dairy factories, 7 quarries, 3 flaxmills, 3 sawmills, 2 Public Works Department workshops, and 1 gold-min-ing company. The increase in the number of motois for the year was 41 per cent., and in the total capacity of the motors 19.3 per cent The total connected load at March 31, 1925 was equivalent to 13,630-h.p, an increase of 30 per cent, over the previous year.

“Power Demapd,—The whole of the power taken by the board has been generated at the Horahora works, with the exception of small amounts supplied back by the Grand Junction Gold Mining Company at Waihi and the N.Z. Daily Co.’s dried milk factory at Waitoa.. Although the power supplied by these two latter places hais been small, it has been most valuable. These station act as standby plants, and in case of breakdowns on the single Government 50,000-volt line have supplied a limited though useful amount of electricity. The number of units purchased by the board was 19,059,239, and the units sold amounted to 8,047,391. Compared with last year, there has been anincrease of 4'3.3 per cent, in the number of units purchased, at a cost of 0.508 d per unit, as against 0.553 d.”