Proposed Electric Scheme for the North Island.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 8, 1 June 1906, Page 195

Proposed Electric Scheme for the North Island.

We have recently heard of the Government's refusal to allow the Waihi Gold Mining Co. to harness the Horahora falls— a point situated about fifty miles from the company's plant — on account of the projected utilisation of the Huka falls for the supply of electrical energy to the important centres of the North Island. This decision was founded on an Act of 1903, termed " The Water Powers Act," which provides for the Governmental reservation of the colony's waterfalls as being the property of the people. It was thought at the time the Act was passed that the Government would not stand as arbiters between the people and private enterprise, for both are virtually synonymous ; but, unfortunately for the latter, and particularly the Waihi Co., it was found that the Cabinet intended to carry out the interpretation of the Act by interdicting the claims of the Waihi Co., thereby making its enterprising object to treat low-grade ores a nugatory one. A glance at the map will show the enormous radius to be supplied with power from the Huka falls, and at once we ask " is it commercial!;, possible ?" No one doubts that it is possible to transmit power from the Huka falls to Wellington or Auckland ; but the maximum distance, 240 miles, would not only constitute a world's record m long-distance transmission, but the revenue, in proportion to the extent of the undertaking, would certainly be without parallel m point of smallness. With such a scheme an unconscionably high price per unit is bound to accompany the transmission of power, as we shall endeavour to show. The cost for supplying Auckland and Wellington has been estimated at £500,000 ; and to include Napier, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Wanganui and Palmerston North a further expenditure of has been calculated upon ; therefore a yearly revenue of would be required to cover interest and other capital charges and working expenses for the 700 miles of transmission lines. The horse power at present in use in the towns above mentioned probably does not exceed 8,000, and if we take this as being used on an average ten hours a day for 305 days per annum, the total annual power consumption is, in round numbers 24,000,000 horse-power hours. The Government would find, when commencing operations, that the cost price of a horse-power hour would work out very closely to 6d. Now, when we have indisputable figures on the working of steam plants all over the colony, with their comparatively high wastefulness, and' on top of such figures, the marvellously low working cost of producer-gas engines, the commercial success of the proposed Huka scheme comes into serious questior. Steam plants are capable of supplying a horsepower hour at 2|d., and producer-gas machines, id. the lowest efficient power in the world. Both prices include every capital and operating charge. If the Huka-falls powei were to be confined merely to Auckland and Wellington, the cost of a horsepower hour might be reduced to between ul. and 4d. A prominent electrical engineer, resident in New Zealand, recently stated he was " fully convinced that to carry out the scheme will be to set back the interests of electrical engineering in the colony in a most deplorable way, and to commit a commercial blunder of the greatest magnitude. The successful development of water powers requires that the consumer be supplied with electricity cheaper than he can otherwise obtain his energy. With coal at the prices current in most parts of New Zealand to compete with, it will never pay to transmit electric power to anything like such distances as 150 or 200 miles. The limit of profitable transmission vanes m every case according to the conditions, which may be summed up as the amount of capital involved in the development, and the nature of the market available " It will be of interest to Progress readers to give an outline of the Waihi Co.'s power scheme, which has been the recent bone of contention in the question of the utilisation of the water powers of the colony. The great gold-producing syndicate were prepared to spend on a transmission line of fiftytwo miles, carrying current at 36,000 volts, with a total loss in transmission and transformation of 25 per cent, of power from the turbines to the mill shafting. The power is required under the very rare and most favourable conditions of twentyfour hours per day during a six-day week. The total cost of a horse-power year, inclusive of all charges except the tax to be put on it by the Government, was £3.

In refusing the company permission the Government intimated that it preferred to have the company as a customer for the Huka-falls plant, but as the distance from Huka to Waihi (ioo miles) is double that from Horahora to Waihi, the best price the Government co^ld ofier the power for was " something under £10 " per horse-power year, or more than three times what the company could get it for, if only it were allowed. As the company is already generating steam power at as low a price as the Government's offer, it will surprise no one to learn that the company has now solely in consequence of its inability to obtain the cheap power it wants, abandoned its plans for working the low-grade ores, and with that decision there will be £40,000 ]ess wages annually paid in Waihi in future than would otherwise have been the case. Meanwhile, the Horahora power will continue to expend its energy on the rocks, and if the Governments' intention is adhered to, all the other water powers of the North Island, with the exception of Huka falls, will do the same. In conclusion we might express concurrence with the opinion of a leading electrical expert, in that it would pay the colony handsomely to make no exception with Huka, but to closely preserve it, along with all its fellow-powers, rather than to harness it and then find that no customers can be got willing to pay four or five times more for Huka power than they can make gas power for. In the current issue of Progress some highly interesting figures dealing with the cost of producergas power are given, and there -can be no question that this mode of generating current is to play a very important part in the future of our colony.

N.B. — IN SOME CASES A BRANCH LINE MIGHT BE RUN TO SUPPLY A TOWN LYING COMPARATIVELY NE\R TO A M\IN TRANSMISSION LINE. THE PLAN SHOWS SHORTEST DISTANCES POSSIBLE.

Since the above article was written we learn that the Government have under consideration the harnessing of the Kaituna river for supplying energy to the district lying north as far as Auckland. According to the report by Mr. Hay (now chief engineer of the Public Works Department) on the colony's water powers, the conditions obtaining at the Kaituna require much careful investigation and in any case the cost of developing this power will be heavy, while the scheme will serve only a limited territory. To reach Auckland city a transmission line of about 160 miles will be required, and for this reason alone it does not seem possible for power to be retailed there any cheaper than would be the case with Huka power. It is probable that the whole subject of water power development will come before Parliament at an early date, and m the interests of the country's industries we sincerely trust that the existing barriers to the progress of this important class of enterprise will be removed, and that nothing further will be heard of schemes, magnificent from a technical and political standpoint, but unsound commercially. We need cheap power, but trailing current for long distances "up hill and down dale," while coal is readily obtainable in all the centres of the colony, simply means that the gas-producer plant will beat the hydro-electric

one on all counts. The hydro-electric plant can, and if permitted will, give us the cheap power desired. Approximate cost of transmission lines :—: — Huka to Auckland — £ „ via Waihi 130,000 „ to New Plymouth . . • • 7°> oo ° „ to Wanganui 65,000 „ to Gisborne 65,000 „ to Napier 45-000 „ to Wellington 150,000 525,000 Less possible saving by running branch lines to tap mam lines in suitable cases . . 25,000 £500,000 Cost of supplying North Island from Huka :—: — Transmission lines £500,000 Power station and hydraulic works, 10,000 horse-power output, as estimated by Public Works Dept 200,000 £700,000