N.Z. GOVERNMENT SUBSTATION.

Shannon News, 14 August 1923, Page 4

N.Z. GOVERNMENT SUBSTATION.

\ AT BUN N YTH ORPE. 3 " On the early lithograuh plans of the counties, the part of Bunnythorpe, where the hotel, Glaxo factory, etc., now stand, was called “Mugby Junction.” A route for a railway line was also laid off to the Gorge on the plans. Th e town has never been a Tailway junction, but in a few years time it will be a junction of a highly important character. Here all the New Zealand Government long distance ( 110,000-volt lines will meet, and the | sub-station could really be called the j “master switching station” of the j North Isand. There will be lines to , Mangahao hydro station, 24,000 bp,; I other lines to Woodville (branching off |to Wairarapa and Wellington), while - the main line goes on to Napier, Waikaremoana hydro station, 40,000 h.p., Gisborne, Whakatane, etc., to Arapuni

hydro station, 96,000 h.p. Another line will leave Bunnythorpe, up the Main Trunk line, via Taihape, Ohakuno, Taumarunui, etc., while other lines will radiate to Wanganui and Taranaki, the latter line going up the West Coast to join up near Te Kuiti, with the big hydro stations at Arapuni and Horahora (9,000 h.p.) In the case of a break-down of one station, current ean then be sent from others, such as Waikaremoana to Wellington, Mangahao to Waikato or Taranaki, Arpuni to Wellington, etc. (At Bunnythorpe the Power Board will buy its power at a pressure of 11,000 volts, and instal its own distributing equipment, Lines will radiate to Palmerston North, Feilding, Halcombe, Kimbolton, Pohangina, Ashliurst, Longburn, Ilangiotu, Himitangi, Linton, Kongo tea, and Sandon, etc. At various points of these lines, there will be erected outdoor sub-stations for transforming the 11,000 volts down to \ either 3300 vlts for further distribu- j tion, or to 400 volts and 230 volts l’eady for use in motors or lights. The 3300-volt lines will carry the power down the various roads, and on the same poles that the wires are carried on transformers of smaller sizes will b e erected to transform this high pressure to 400 and 230 volts for consumers. The idea of using high voltages is to avoid loss in transmission and use smaller wires, as it is not economical to transmit 400 volts much over a mile or perhaps two miles. The cost of a big chopper wire for the power at low voltag e is a costly item, and the heavier the wires are, the poles have ta be much heavier, and more costly in proportion. , . A-J£ai !