HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1922, Page 7

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

PROGRESS OF SCHEMES. SATISFACTORY PROGRESS MADE Wellington, Oct. 17 In the Public Works Statement, de’ efed In the House to-night, the following refr•nees were made to the development «f hydro-electric power in the Dominion: Of the hydro-electric programme of tie Government, two schemes are now in opeation —Lake Coleridge (12,000 h.p.) art Horahora (8,400 h.p.). These have bot shown satisfactory results for the year, bot having paid operating*expenses, interest gnd depreciation, and'shown a margu towards reduction of the accumulated de ficiency. LAKE COLERIDGE SUPPLY. The financial result of the year’s operation is as follows: £ Capital outlay 671,608 Working expenses 25,911 Interest 20,981 Depreciation 8,424 Total annual cost £55,316 The revenue for the year amounted to £56,814,. showing a net profit of £1,498. This amount was paid off the accumulated deficiency for the previous years of operation, which now stands at a net debit of £29,175. Although the scheme is thus showing a profits on the accounts, no'sinking fund IS' yet provided. In accordance with the Stare Supply of Electricity Act, 1917; un-

der which these accounts are kept, a sink-ing-fund of 1 per cent, must be set up.B’ foor. as there are available profits out of which to pay it. Had this sinking fund be£n paid last year it would have converted the r rofif of £1,498 into a loss of £4,458, gnu had it been paid from the inception pf the undertaking it would have increased the see mulated deficiency on the net reve i hue account by £29,855. Thus, although the"rf-ults are satisfactory, they are not >uch • to justify any reconsideration of the ?::*■ lard scale of charges until the sink jjng fLi.d is provided for. But the savings effec >y consumers are very much erea ■ ■ than the revenue received by-the department. The main work during the year was the fXten* on of the plant capacity from 8,000 h.p. to 12,000 h.p. by the addition of 8 pew 4,01X1 h.p. unit with necessary switeh■jeafind pipe-line. This was completed and p into service at the end of the finln u’ year, and its influence on the final.c ?.l returns will not be realised until pext yesr. A further 4,000 h.p. unit is In. hand which will bring the plant up to the full capacity of the existing tunnel and power house building. This will enable the output to be increased to 16,000 h.p., and will , render available a limited supply pf 1,000 h.p. reserved for Ashburton, Titnaru and South Canterbury. The trans-tnwaion-line for this purpose is well in band. In order to provide for further extenidon? vo to the full requirements of the district vis., £36,000 h.p.—the survey has peen carried out for a second tunnel, lift, in diameter, and plans are in hand jjgr the extension of the power-house by

the addition of two 10,000 h.p. units, with further provision for a third unit of the same capacity when required. WAIKATO ELECTRIC POWER Z.- SUPPLY. The Horahora power plant has now completed its second year of service since it was taken over from the Waihi Gold Mining Company, and the financial results are as follows: £ Capital outlay 353.807 Working expenses ... 7,98 G Interest 13,187 Depreciation 4,512 Total costs £25,085 The revenue for the year was £28,207, showing a net profit of £2522, as compared with a loss for the previous year of £6282. This result is largely due to the increased revenue received from the mines and dairy factories. In addition, supply has been given to Hamilton borough and to four electric power boards, viz., Thames Valley, Cambridge, Central and Te Awamutu. For this purpose the transmission lines have been extended by sixty-seven miles. As in the case of Lake Coleridge, no sinking fund has been provided, and this, had it been paid, would have converted this profit into a loss of £59. In order to provide for the normal increase in. the demand, contracts have been placed for two additional generatng units of 2000 kw. each, which will yring the full power-house capacity up io 10.300 kw., or 14.000 h.p.. which it is ntieipated will be fully loaded u» beore the Arapuni works are completed, 'he headworks and power-house extenions to accommodate these additional nits are now in hand. MANGAHAO ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY.

In addition to the two plants in ac-i-al operation, work is in hand at Manjhao, Arapuni and Waikaremoana. At Mangahao substantial progress has len made with the excavation and ling of the two main tunnels, the byjss tunnel for the Mangahao dam, the ©avation for the Mangahao and Arajti dams, the foundations for the pwer-house. and with the transmission les to Wellington. For the supply o-f t* necessary materials thirty-five contets, amounting in all to £277,000, hre been placed. installations, when completed, s*l have a capacity of 24.000 n.p., vich is the full capacity of the availa* supply of water. The distribution othe power will he entrusted to Welliton city and seven electric power bads which have been constituted for tl purpose. Each of these power beds is making good progress. The fowing allocation Jias been made:— Horsepower. Vllington city and district .. ■ 12,000 lit Valley Electric Power Board 2,000 frowhenua Electric Power Board 1 Miawatu Electric Power Board 3-300 ingitikei Electric Power Board 1,800 r airarapa Electric Power Board 2.000 ararua Electric Power Board 1 ,QOO iannevirke Electric Power | Board

The above allocations amount to about one in ten of the population—approximately the same proportion as the output of the Lake Coleridge and Waipori plants bears to the population of the districts supplied. It is therefore anticipated that Mangahao will be fully loaded to the same extent. ARAPUNI ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY. The Arapuni scheme stands on a different footing from the others that have previously been put in hand in New Zealand, in that it cannot be developed to advantage in stages to meet the load as it grows. Owing to the large dam and heavy headworks, this scheme cannot pay until the output reaches about 36,000 h.p., and the only district which could offer a sufficient demand to ensure this load being reached in the early future is Auckland city. A contract was negotiated providing for the supply to the city from the Arapuni works, and this contract has been completed by the Auckland Electric Power Board, which in the meanwhile was formed to take over the whole electric supply from the City Council. This contract anticipates that the board will take a supply of at least 15,000 kw. (20,000 h.p.) in 1928, when it is anticipated that the Arapuni works will be ready to supply, the board holding up its load to this or such greater demana as may be available in the meanwhile by means of its steam plant. In the meanwhile the surveys and preliminary works at Arapuni have been put in jhand.

WAIKAREMOANA ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY.

This power station will be required in the early future, mainly to supplement the demand for power from Mangahao station, and the proposal is to then provide an installation of 40,000 h.p. In the meanwhile the exciter units of the large plant, consisting of two 500 h.p. water-wheels coupled to 350 kw. alternators and direct current generators, are being installed in a temporary power-house, and will be utilised at once for supply to the Wairoa Electric Power Board up to a capacity of 750 "h.p., the balance of 250 h.p., being reserved for the construction of the main works. ELECTRIC POWER BOARDS. Of the twenty-three districts already constituted, four are now taking power from the Government power station at Horahora. four have entered into contracts to take supply from other Government schemes, eight propose also to do so, and seven of the districts are outside the area with which a supply of power is available from the Government stations. Three of these—Southland, Opunake, and Teviot —have arranged to instal their own power stations, and the other four have not yet. decided upon their source of supply. Whilst the main object of the electric power boards is to undertake the distribution of the power supplied in bulk by the Government, the boards must, of course set up their own generating station or make other arrangements to obtain power in districts 1b which a Government supply is not yet available. The suggestion has been made that some of the boards are not spending k their funds to the advantage, and

thus increasing the cost of power to the consumers. In two or three cases the boards, in their desire to give a general supply over the whole of their inner area, have constructed, or arranged to construct, lines which will not be remunerative for some years. The responsibility of licenses to supply in their district has not been clearly defined in the past. New regulations are being issued which render this responsibility quite definite but at the same time protect the interests of the licensee or board by giving them the power to require from prospective consumers a guarantee for a period of five years of an annual revenue from any line at a rate not less than 20 per cent, of the capital cost of such line. The power 'board would, of course, lay out its original reticulation of the districts, which will obviously be remunerative, and would then extend it piece by piece under this guarantee to the more remote and sparsely settled portion of its area, thus ensuring an ultimate supply to all who require it, and at the same time ensuring a sufficient revenue to the board to render the scheme self-support-ing as it develops. As long as the boards generally administer their affairs economically it is desired to leave the question of their internal policy in their own hands as representatives of the ratepayers concerned. But if it is found that work is being done that will involve undue cost of power to consumers, thus restricting the development of the output of the main Government station, it may 'be necessary to take power by legislation to enable the Department to review the 'board's estimates at the beginning of each financial year. If, on the other hand, it is found that a power board fails to adopt a sufficiently progressive policy to ensure the disposal of the proportion of the output of the Government power-sta-tions developed for that particular district, it may also become necessary for the Government to protect itself in this direction in making the contract for the supply of power to the board. LOCAL ELECTRIC-SUPPLY SYSTEMS. In addition to the Government and power boards systems, the Department is responsible under the Public Works Amendment Act, 1911, for the licensing and supervision of all the electric-eupply systems of the Dominion. The industry as a whole now involves a capital outlay of £5,224,629, and after paying working-expenses and capital charges at an average rate of 5.85 per cent, it yielded a net profit of £82,688, or 1.6 per cent, additional on the capital outlay. Full details are included in the tables herewith. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS. With regard to future developments, a programme was set out in my last annual Statement covering a total expenditure of £12,902,000, spread over a period of tea years, prvoiding 260,000 h.p. and reaching a maximum rate of expenditure of £2,023,000 in 1925. The financial position has rendered it necessary to revise this programme in order to keep the annual expenditure per year, in the meantime, down to about £1,000,000. To do this it has been necessary to postpone for a couple of years the commencement of the main works at Lake Waikaremoana, and to hold over a number of the smaller developments in the South Island until the power boards . are constituted to deal with the reticula-

tion. At the same time the transmissionlines from the schemes to be proceeded with will be pushed on, in order to make the supply as general as possible within the capacity of the headworks at each site. With this object the mains from Lake Coleridge will be extended into Otago and North Canterbury, and from Mangahao to Wanganui and Napier, in addition to the lines already under construction. The revised programme herewith provides for a slightly less total expenditure (£11,355,000) spread over a longer period, and keeps for the first few years within the limit of £1,000,000 per annum.