Power use down

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 393, 2 July 1991, Page 3

Power use down

Domestic customers in the king Country Energy area have consistently used less power per year than the national average thanks to the number of holiday homes serviced. More than a third of the board's domestic customers are holiday homes. The trend has continued since 1983 when local domestic usasge fell below the national average for the first time since records were kept in 1978. While national usage has fluctuated between 7500-8000 units per year, King Country's average has fallen under 7000 units. The statistics show a steady increase in customer numbers, with a sharp lift in 1990 when King Country Energy took over the Taumarunui Borough

Council's electricity department. Customer numbers are now just under 12,000 after rising from about 7500 in 1978. Domestic customer numbers have remained reasonably static, while non domestic customers now total 2860, from almost none in 1978. Graphs tabled with King Country Energy's annual report show how significant a customer the Karioi pulp mill was for the board, until Winstones negotiated direct supply from Electricorp. In the years of supply ing Karioi from 1980-86, usage by the mill was greater than that by all other King Country Energy customers it pushed total demand to just on 350MW hours, compared with the present day load of around 125MW hours.