POWER BOARD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 7, 19 October 1931, Page 6

POWER BOARD

REPAIR OF STORM DAMAGE.

MANY POLES BROUGHT DOWN

REVENUE FOR SIX MONTHS. Th 6 Ashburton Electric Power Board met this morning when there were present: Messrs P. W. Watt (chairman), J. W. M. Dart, W. H. Rundle, H. J. Crothers. E. F. Nicoll, H. Morris, W. Bryant, R. J. Mulligan, S. Smith, W. H. Woods, and W. T. Lill. The financial statement showed that revenue for the six months ended September, with a comparison with the corresponding of last year was as follows:

In the above tables shillings and pence have beein omitted. Decreases are marked bv an asterisk. Th Ashburton Borough Council, the Ashburton County Council, the Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral Association, and the Mid-Canterbury Provincial Executive of the Farmers' Union wrote supporting the Board in its proposal to seek a reduction in the cost of power purchased from the Government:

The Finance Committee's recommendation that 100 macrocarpa poles at 8s each, to be used mainly for services, and because the Board had been unable to get delivery of poles ordered from Australia,, and also on account of replacement of storm damaged poles, was adopted. • The Engineer-Secretary (Mr H. I*. Kemp) reported that the principal work had been the replacement of defective glueguin poles. A total of 143 had been replaced with ironbark 1 in tDorie, Rakaia township, and Rokeby districts as part of the main protrramme of replacements. A further 24 had been erected to replace poles brought down in storms, making a total of 167 for the month. The Done line had been completed, and the greater part of Rakaia township, had been overhauled. Shortage of suitable poles prevented' the completion o. Rakaia, The sang was working in the Rokebv district. A heavy north-west Kale on October 10 caused widespread damage, 127 bluegum poles being brought down and a number of wires broken, mainly by trees. The following were the losses of .poles m local areas: Methven-Highhank 12, Lyndhurst 11, Lauriston 12, Winchmore 17, Chertsev 10 Rakaia 3, Rokeby 11, Elgin 7, Wakanui 4, Hinds 9, Eiffelton 5, Tinwald 8, Lagmhor 9, Fairton 3, Ashburton 6 Some new services were run and small Alterations made in others, and further alterations were made to suit the re-arrangement of telephone lines The Countv Council stonecrusher sub-station was moved from Carew to Winslow. ■ . ... The Board discussed m committee the question of trees falling across the power lines, and when it resumed in open raeeting.it was .stated that the matteil" had been left in the hands oi the Engineer-Secretary. The Running-Engineer (Mr A. 1. Saunders) reported that units robphed bv Lake Coleridge bad totalled 491.0*5. and from-the Diesel 1662, a total of 492 695 The maximum demand on the station was 1529 k.w. on October 9, 1931, and on Coleridge 1415 wva. on the same date. The Diesel plant was running for 15 hours 18 minutes during the month, using 135 gallons of crude oil During the month one of the sas engines had been dismantled, and the floor space cleared. It was proposed to re-arrange the workshop to protect the machines from the dirt and dust to which they were now exposed. as, this was being done as a spare time job it w«s necessarily a slow nob. The main bank of transformers (11000/ 400 volts) showed signs of heating at the 400-V. terminals, and it was necessary to replace six of these There was plenty of water available, and one pump was able to cope with the dema 1 A very severe storm on October io caused a good deal of damagewinch hurl been very widespread, and the Welling time had beena big factor in restoring service. A total oi Ut--130 poles were blown down. The Inspector (Mr W G We sh) reported that the wiring staff had had a fair amount of work during this month and still had work in hand. Toward the latter half of the month orders for appliances brightened up considerably. Thfequipment installed this month ineluded three ranges, two water-heaters nine motors. Four new consumers bad ffeu, connected. al „l alterations had been dealt wt i. Connections now on the system weie i?cmcr«s 739. water-neateis 4J4, moto% S T242Tractors 54.50, consumers 3606. „ , -i 'The reports were adopted.

PJ31. 1930. Increase £ £ £ Domestic 14,472 13,356 1,115 Commercial . 3,911 4,135 224* Power 4,232 4,221 10 Sundry revenue 283 235 48 Public lighting 653 673 19* 23,551 22,621 , % 930 The revenue for September of this year and for September of last year was as follows :- - > 1931. 1930. Increase £ £ £ Domestic . 2,682 2,506 175 Commercial 743 769 26* Power , 504 500 3 Public ligbting. 328 336 7* Sundry revenue. 33 28 5 ' 4.291 4.140 150