Serious Result of Arapuni Delay

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 8

Serious Result of Arapuni Delay

POWER BOARD’S QUANDARY | CUSTOMERS DEPRIVED OF PRICE REDUCTION EDUCTION of charges for cur. rent to the Auckland P oWer Board's consumers will be delayed j indefinitely by the fact that the Board will have to install extra plant to supply power which it was expected to get from Ar a . puni. A delay of nine months there w, commented on by the chairman of ! Auckland Power Board. Mr w i | Holdsworth, in his annual report ye jterday. Xo power could be expect?, front Arapuni before the end of io-n but the demand for power was ran! 1 idly increasing, and in view of thdelay the board had made inquiri? overseas for more plant. The Prime Minister, who had bee. approached on his last visit to Wt land, had promised to arrange a cor ference of power authorities. Should nothing arise out of the conference 0 the board would have to consider the’ position. 8 LOAN PROPOSAL FORESHADOWED The gratifying demand for power should not receive a set-back, said 3dHoldsworth. If the board were com' pelled to install plan! to make good the deficiency, the money would have to come out of loan money ana a fur. ther authorisation would have to b placed before the ratepayers because all accumulated reserves of the board were earmarked. It had been the board's Intentioi to reduce charges to consumers, bu» in the circumstances it could not be done in the meantime, for they would be faced with expenditure on plan l which would be wanted only for a short time. Again the 22,000-volt cables between the King's Wharf station and Penrose, which were being laid at the request of the Public Works Department, might not be revenue-producing for two years yet costing the board £IO,OOO in over head charges. SERIOUSNESS OF SET-BACK “If we have a set-back from Arapuni at the present time,” said Mr. S. I. Cyookes, “it is going to have a aisas! trous effect upon the whole province.” It would mean that power could not be supplied to additional consumers and hundreds of men would be thrown out of work through the serious effects upon industries. The result would be a very serious economic set-back. The general manager, Mr. R. H. Bartley, stated in his report that the principal work in connection with the receipt of power from Arapuni would be completed long before it could be placed in full commission. Two of the 2,000-kilowatt rotary converters would be run as inverted machines supplying alternating current. This would enable the fullest use to be made of the King’s Wharf sub-station which, when completed, would be the most up-to-date in the Southern Hemisphere. The buildings had been altered to house the new machinery which would soon arrive. Work on the cable between King’s Wharf and Penrose had been begun. It was a huge undertaking, and expert cable jointers had been brought out from England for the work.