ELECTRICAL COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 172, 22 July 1936, Page 6

ELECTRICAL COSTS.

It gives much food for thought to read that the Opunake Power Board fears that the installation of Deisel engines would seriously prejudice the position of electric power boards. The board urges that the Government he approached to give some protection to the interests of power boards by a tax on crude oil or by an annual license fee 011 engines. As Sir Richard Redmayne, a past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, has remarked, the Deisel engine lias the highest efficiency .of any type of prime mover. Sir Alexander Gibb, a vice-president, has made the remarkable statement that "whereas— generally speaking—the most economic waterpower sites have already .been developed, and whereas the efficiency of water-power plant has already reached nearly to its possible limit, the trend of development in steam stations is most promising, and they will in many cases in the future be able to compete with new water power development." The 1930 Year Book shows that tlio Xew Zealand Government, in the year 1934-35, sold in bulk to local authorities 050,405,000 units, which cost to generate £930,000, or 0.34 d per unit sold; while 709,554,000 units were retailed in all New Zealand for £3,501,000, or an average of l.lSd per unit. There is 110 wonder, therefore, why the power boards are concerned. They pay no income tax —as do gas companies—get the majority of their appliances into Xew Zealand duty free, and yet l.lOd per unit is the best they can do. The biggest and most reliable customers of local authorities are the tramways, which last year used 42,549,000 units and paid for this quantity an average of 0.72 d per unit. I know of one small generating station using three Diesel engines each of 100 horse-power, which generates current at a cost, inclusive of fuel, lubricating oil, depreciation and attendance, of less than one penny per unit. It appears very strange that more large users of electricity in New Zealand do not install their own generating plants. However, the power boards are wise to anticipate their difficulties instead of waiting until the cream of their market lias gone, as did the coal owners in Xew Zealand. CHARTERED CIVIL EXGINEER.