POWER CONTROL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 76, 30 March 1944, Page 6

POWER CONTROL

BOARDS WITHOUT VOICE

COMMISSIONER AUTHORITY

"It has been advocated by this board for a number of years that there should be commissioner control of so important an undertaking as the generation of electric power, which is vital to both the primary and secondary industries," says a statement by Mr. J. Dean, chairman of the Franklin Electric Power Board, which is being circulated to interested organisations. It is claimed in the statement that power boards are in the best position to know the requirements and developments of their own districts, yet no notice is taken by the Minister of their needs.

"The Works Department has control of the generation of electric power and also of the construction of new power stations," says the statement. "One of the weaknesses is that the power boards and supply authorities which retail the power have no voice in the policy of the Department, the programme of power station development and the charges made to them for bulk power." The restrictions already imposed will apparently become more necessary in the next few years, the statement adds. These have caused serious loss of revenue to the Franklin Board and have proved irksome to consumers. Instructions to limit the weekly increase in units consumed have been given effect to by curtailing the hours of water heating and street lighting and by controlling additional installations. It is hoped that further restrictions might be met by the introduction of a metered rate and the installation of thermostats for water heaters.

Even before the war, adds the statement, the needs of the industry were not fully appreciated by the Government, as apparently no serious effort was made to ensure that some of the "so-called ordered plant" was brought to the Dominion. From the Minister's statement and figures the development. of water power resources had not kept pace with the demand even before the war, and there was evidence that it had been retarded.