FAILURE OF POWER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 12

FAILURE OF POWER.

15 MINUTES IN DARKNESS. OVERHAUL AT KING'S WHARF. A portion of the city was plunged into darkness for about a-quarter of an hour, and the tram services within the city area were held up, early last evening through the failure of electric power. Part of the plant at the King's wharf station had been shut down during the day to facilitate cleaning of the valves and pipes which supply cooling water to the steam condensers. A few generators were kept in use and the power from these was augmented by interlinking with the Horahora station, Waikato. The work was still unfinished when, at 5.50 p.m., the supply from Horahora was cut off, and the alternating current being supplied to the Hobson Street station was shut down. This caused the power to fail on the west side of Queen Street, Hobson Street and the contained area. The full plant was at once started up at King's wharf, but it was not until 6.5 p.m. that the converters at Hobson Street were again in motion. The trams in Queen Street were delayed a few minutes, while those in Hobson Street were delayed for the full period that the lights were out.