HYDRO-ELECTRICITY.

Shannon News, 23 March 1928, Page 2

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY.

HOROWHENTJA POWER BOARD’S MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Horowhenna Electric Power Board was held in the Municipal Chambers on Tuesday, there -being present: Messrs G. A. Monk (chairman), W. E. Barber, T. G. Vincent, R. Bryant, E. Morse. C. Blenkliorn, A. J. Petherick, P. W. Goldsmith (seere'ta'ry and treasurer), and J. A. Smith (engineer). Leave of absence was granted to Messrs A. Seifert and W. H. Gunning. TREASURER’S REPORT. The Treasurer reported as follows ACCOUNTS. Payments since the last meeting of the Board total £1093 18s Id. The principal item, outside wages and salaries is a payment for bare copper wire (being 90 per cent of the value of 4 tons), the amount being £323 12s 7d. The motor fees, plus registration plates, amounted to £3l 19s 2d, there being .12 vehicles and trailer. In the accounts to be passed for payment on this occation there is no account for interest and no big bill from the Public Works Department, hence the amount is not so large as usual. The total amount, however, comes to. £4/3, which includes payments for timber, wire, benzine, meters, rent, and many sundries. , __ T , RECEIPTS FOR FEBRUARY. The total amount received, as the table which follows will show, was •£2093 8s lOd, of which electricity accounts for £2140 Is 4d. To the end of February nearly £37,200 had been , received for meter rents and electricity, which shows an advauee on the same period last year of about £6OOO. The takings for March last year were veij good indeed, and there seems some doubt that, as there was not a very good start, the present month may not be so good as Alqreh twelve months ago. If such is the case, it is quite on the boards that the increase shown at the end of February, viz. £6OOO, may not be sustained at the end of March. CASH RECEIPTS. Feb. April-Fcb. £ £ '

Total receipts for electricity ..and meter rents —from April Ist, 1927, to February 29tli, 1928. £37,186; from April Ist, 1926 to Fob. 28, 1927, £31,167; increase £6,019. (Shillings and pence omitted.) The report was received. ENGINEER’S REPORT. Idle Engineer presented the following report covering the period since the last meeting:— No. 1 Gang have fitted and erected 19 poles, run three service lines, and 267 chains of wire; have extended L.T. on Easton’s property, Kcri Kcri Roacl; and at aWikanae; changed some L. T. at Waikanae to heavier cables to cope with load; have completed overhaul at Te Iloro Beach section and Te Waka 1 Road section; have made alterations to L.T. at Foxton, and service lines, Kuku and 11/akara; cut trees in various parts of the district. No. 2 Gang have erected 19 poles, run three service lines, and 348 chains of wire; have extended L.T. Lupin Road Otaki; have made alterations to L.T. , Cambridge Street, and put in railway, crossing for community ligMing and extra feeder; have re-strained all lines on Convent Road, Lupin Road and adjacent streets, Otaki, re-conditioned street lighs and cut trees. No. 3 Gang have run three service lines, attended to complaints, street lights, and general maintenance, Northern Area, and attended to Main Sub-station. Electrical fitters have run.eight service lines and extra phases on one service line and erected two. poles; have carted out 21 poles; changed Te Hero Beach Road, Paraparaumu Beach Road (No. 1) and Tiro Tiro Road transformers; have re-conditioned three transformers and a number •of street lamp fittings;' re-assembled- one .25 k.v.a. transformer (damaged), dried out oil in 100 k.v.a. set in Levin Alain Sub-station; attended to complaints, street lamp renewals, cut, trees, and general maintenance. Installations. —During the period 14 applications from new consumers and 21 applications for extensions to existing installations have been received, comprising three ranges, nine waterlieaters, four milking motors, one pumping and* one industrial motor. Fifteen new consumers and 16 extensions have b*een connected, including four ranges, three waterheaters, and one milking motor. Forty .single-phase meters have been tested and 10 repaired and retested. Tavo ranges have been dried out and delivered to consumers. The report was received. SECRETARIES ’ CONFERENCE.

A report on tile conference of the secretaries’ committee of the Power Boards’ Association was received from the Secretary. He stated that the committee met in conference in Wellington on February 22nd and 23rd, when representatives were present from many parts of the The , executive of the Power Boards’ Association met in Wellington on the same day, and most of its members visited the Secretaries’ Conference.

One of the subjects .which called forth very considerable discussion was that relating to depreciation. It was pointed out that the matter would have to be faced when the next annual balance sheet was drawn up, and -the percentages to be provided was a vital question. It was eveptually decided to send a deputation the Auditor and Controller-General m order to find out the mind of the Audit Department on

the subject, The three members of the conference who were deputed to make the interview reported that the AuditorGeneral informed them that definite percentage had not yet been fixed, but he would be guided by the best expert opinion as to th'c life of the certain i descriptions of lines and plants, and the percentage would be based on the life of the works. Those Boards with lines of a good type would consequently be in a much better position than those Boards whose lines and works were of 'a poor type. He told them that as soon as possible he would advise Boards of the rates which would satisfy the Audit Department, He did not anticipate there would be any undue hardness in meeting the requirements. A paper was received by the Conference from Mr Hitchcock, general man- . ager of the Municipal Electricity Department, Christchurch, dealing in general with the functions of the Association. The paper in the main went to prove that in the initial stages of Power Board work the Association did excellent work, but now that earlier difficulties have been dealt , with and the work is .becoming more defined, matters could in future be dealt with in a way which would produce better results. He contended that a very much smaller number of remits should be submitted at the annual conference, and that technical administration and legal discussions be confined as far as practicable to the engineers and secretaries sections, thereby conserving the time of the main conference. He thought the main conference should only deal with matters of policy and general interest, and if annual meetings could be reduced so much the better. It was freely admitted in discussion that at any rate there should be only, one week in the year when the various sections should meet, with the main annual conference towards the close of that week. There seemed no two opinions but that the methods now in vogue involved an expenditure of tot) much time and money, and although very valuable work was done a cheapo way should be found to secure the desired results. A practical' paper was given by Mr Geo. Brown, the manager of the Wairtfrapa Power Board, on overdue accounts, in which he set out the difficulties which are fairly common to all Power Boards, and the methods he had adopted to meet the position to reduce outstand.ug accounts and to prevent losses. Mr P. H. Smith sent a paper dealing with the position'of the Wan-ganui-Knngitikei Board, which has ; nearly 70(H) consumers. Two. items in the figures supplied by Mr Smith struck Mi- Goldsmith as being particularly ■ significant. They were as follows: i Gross amount advanced to consumers for installations to December 31sf, 1927, £92,830; amount provided out of re- , venue for depreciation, £21,744. A steam plant would -doubtless mean a heavy depreciation. Mr Smith contended that electric waterheaters were perhaps the source of the greatet waste of electricity. He put the least profitable features in- a Board’s undertakings as (1) waterheaters, (z) street lighting and (3) electric ranges. There were of course other papers, and discussions on many matters of interest. The chairman (Mr Clias. Campbell, of Southland, was as full of en- ( ergv as usual, and tried to impress the secretaries with the magnitude and the importance of their work with ap- • proximately 100 electricity-distributing authorities, and over ini veste'd in generating and .distributing systems. Mr Campbell retired from the chair, his successor being Mr C. Dash, of South Canterbury. Mr Kissell, of the Public Works Department, ! addressed the conference, as did the chairman of Hie Power Boards’ Association, Mr Nash, M.P.; and at an evening function Mr Hinchev, chairman of ’ the Southland Electric Power Board, gave a very fine address. THE CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS. / In moving that the report be received, the chairman (Mr Monk) said lie ! could understand that the Audit Office, ; in working for certain allowances for depreciation, would base these on the stability or quality of the mains and plant belonging to the Board; but he could not help feeling that the gentlemen in the Audit Office were not competent to value these things. The Secretary: They will go to the engineers. The Chairman: That will have to be done. The chairman went on to say that Mr Hitchcock had dealt with the question of a multiplicity of conferences. The speaker quite agreed with him. There were so many conferences now that they were apt'to overlap a little. He realised the necessity for a conference of secretaries and of engineers, and subsequently of supply authorities; but it should be realised that, owing to the great distances which some of the delegates had to travel, the conferences should be held as nearly as possible at one time of the year. The argument used at the engineers’ conference was that after their conference they had a tremendous amount of data to prepare for submission to the main conference. Mr Smith, of Wanganui, had dealt with matters as he had found them in his Board’s district. Water-heating, street-light-ing and electric ranges were probably not quite so unprofitable in the Horowhenua Board’s district because it had a different class of load. In Wanganui, naturally, the peak occurred in. the night, whereas in this district it came in the day-time. He would like to endorse what Mr Goldsmith had said about the good work of Mr Campbell, who had been quite a power in the achievements of these conferences, and to whom the thanks of the supply authorities were due.

A resolution was passed approving the report and thanking the secretary for it.

Electricity and meter rents. 2,140 37,180 Installations, service lines and fittings 471 7,719 Interest on installa 667 tions ' 12 Penalties . . .27 232 Consumers’ deposits 3 v 8b Rents and miseellan411 eous 3S Totals 1 .2,093 £46,300