FURTHER HYDROELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume L, Issue 7971, 28 April 1922, Page 3

FURTHER HYDROELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT

, v >1 ,0 HARNESS WAIW' ol0 '’ BOA KIVEK.

a -occill of ,hc ' l‘° r ' K . f m noil «> wa ' Vcd,;K ; f 10 consider Uh- report of I'- orou.lr Electrical Engineer ! , r Jtandc-nol on tho proposed l.ar- (> q 0„ of the Wairoa River for M"-' lKtric IHnr " u’riideV, Jordan, Jones, \\ alkc , gSlebmy and Whiting were pre-

set i lC Mayor explained the purpose f the meeting and asked Cr Jones chairman of the elcctncitv comnittee to outline the proposal. “cWones formally moved the adnf Mr Mandeno’s report pret» ii» b* " K ' cti,,e of . ‘ “ Cirtiiieil, a lid that flriiiiigemeiits be ‘ Tin hand for unbind tmg V' 0 I>>“P l | m the ratepayers for their apSal Speaking to the motion he hi that when development was first started at Omanawa it was only ” „ small scale to supply the bori sf, and only 240 to 300 h. P , was provided for. As had happen- £ with all hydro-electric schemes New Zealand the people did not SoUar enough ahead and the sapof power had always lalkn short of the demand Whenever current can be suplied cheap enough the people will want it. Consequently the borough had been corncelled three or four years ago to go p for a larger scheme, which is now *3£tag D .bo«t 950 to IOOOh p and that has now been found to bo , still insufficient. Many people * might consider that we should not sell the current outside and thus nowibly cut ourselves short, but ho difhiot think that was the proper wav'd o look at it. We must remember that as the principal town in the Bay it was our duty to encourage industry in every shape and form, and it could not be gameaid that any town or district known to have a cheap system of electricity or any other power, would become a centre for manufactures, and that industrial development must take place in that town or; district. Industrial development such as was hardly realised at the moment must take place here. At present all the waggons carting milk for the New Zealand Dairy company’s dried milk factories in the Waikato were run by electricity, and ho looked forward to the time when all motor vehicles running in this district would bo driven-by electricity, It would pay tho borough to supply power, not at a loss, but at a price merely sufficient to cover interest, depreciation, and a sufficient reserve against accidents. To do so must result in an immense profit to the borough, eventually. So long as people do business in the town, buy all they need and sell their produce in or through it, all that business must pass through this port as the chief port in tho Bay. If then the borough sold to fanners at a price which would make their industries more profitable, ho felt that as the leading town in the Bay, we'were justified in entering on such a scheme as that proposed. Before, however, the borough could talk seriously about developing the Wairoa it was necessary to ascertain whether tho Government would grant a license. The Minister had already stated that he was not in favour of municipalities obtaining a license for the development of power and then exploiting surrounding districts to obtain money to metal their own streets, etc. The Council had approached Mr Coates when ho was here to ascertain his views, lie (Cr Jones) had asked him for a statement of policy. Tho Minister said he was not prepared oil hand to define a policy, but after satisfying himself that the borough was selling power at an exceedingly low price, he expressed himself as fairly satisfied, in fact he was more than satisfied. He stated that if the borough expected to make an undue profit for the sake of metall-ing-its streets, he was not in favour of the scheme. He (Cr Jones) had told the Minister that ha felt sure that tho burgesses would be quite "'filing to supply power at the lowest possible cost" for the sake of beuefitting the surrounding country, and that the ratepayers would he ffiuto prepared to take that broadguided view of the matter, It was almost necessary that the borough mould have a stand-by plant. In practically every case provision was wade for an auxiliary plant. Pcrbo had thought for some lll 'e that we should have a small Pant as a stand-by in case of accieut. The Minister had quoted *Plymouth as a sad case of unue profit making out of their eloctIf It was pointed out to jo Minister that Tauranga was -applying power to the sub-stations Reaper than the Auckland Power °ard was buying from the Government'j an d was selling its power comparatively cheaper -on an avJage—than 'ether plants in New nd, IB' was satisfied, after 5® U, S lDto the figures with Mr ManUl °. that we could find new conjwers now for roughly 1000h.p., ll, m which the revenue would be '/°n P er annum, which ■ ®“ ,(i abo »t meet interest and sink..s I r , I , e WOl 'b- It must not be over- ■, sa lat this must be the lead“f low « of the Bay, but the deopmeut of tim town depended mire y on tile success of tho farmeve.. i° Weie u ' voiistititems of u p* tiudesimm in the town. For J reason he hoped to see the °ngh am bark on the scheme now P and provide tho farmer, m all they want in the shape of current. As Mr Birks had ’) the nnne current we produce U)e hotter for evomme.

tion 1 Scaml( ' bl!r > T ,oco,| d<m Uio mo-

The Mayor intimated that he had been endeavouring to get the figures for the electricity working account for the past year. They were almost complete, and he felt safe in saying that the profits of the department for the year would be a little over £2,000.

Cr Scantlebury said that he did not think any difficulty that might arise through the Minister declining to grant a license unless the borough was prepared later to hand over to a power board, should stand in the way of going on with the work at once. It was absolutely necessary to increase the hydro-elec-tric power. He did not think the question of an auxiliary plant should be brought into the scheme

■ that was wanted in any case. It could bo sold when the Wairoa was developed. lie would like to hear the engineer s opinion as to whether an auxiliary (plant was necessary. Cr Wrigley said he would like to hear Mr Mandeno address the Council on the whole subject.

Mr Mandeno said he considered it would be a wise precaution to make some provision for a stand-by plant. By doing so a number of advantages would be obtained. The position now is that wo had more plant at Omanawa than could be fully loaded by the amount of water available there. This was frequently the case iu power houses in order to take advantage of the extra amount of water which is available during the wet season. There was that plant there and tho generators could bo just as well run by an engine as by a turbine and later on the two small generators now at Omanawa-- assuming the Wairoa is coupled up- which were only a stand-by plant at the present time, would be used as voltage regulators at different points about the system. That was possibly rather a technical phase of the question, but a generator could bo used as a machine for regulating ftlfe pressures, -not evfen driven by an engine, but by electrical power derived from the main. It had tho advantage of enabling the pressure in a particular district in which it might be located to be controlled, irrespective of the pressure being controlled by the main power house. That is a system which is coming into very extensive use throughout tho older countries, and ho foresaw tho lime when the machines at Omanawa would be used for this purpose, and lie contemplated that it would bo a good scheme to bring one of the machines here at once, and by coupling an engine on to it, we would have the added advantage not only of pressure regulaton but of a stand-by plant in case of failure at the lieadworks. Failure at the lieadworks could be due to quite a number of causes. It might be something in connection with the hydraulic arrangements—if it was then we were down and out, we had no stand-by plant at all, and we would be in darkness until repairs could bo effected. On the other hand it might bo in tbe turbines or in the electrical machinery, and for these we had spares, but the smalj machines were not capable of carrying the full load, and the current would then have to be conserved for the most essential needs. ’Apart tbereifore from the necessity of a stand-by plant there was the third advantage of giving the Council a more free hand in encouraging development, and on the score of cost, seeing that we have most of the machinery actually in our possession at the present time. It was only a case of getting an engine and he thought the circumstanc es made it particularly desirable that the Council should take steps to put in such a machine, "Regarding the scheme as a whole he had put in a lengthy report, and . he would now be prepared to answer any questions councillors might wish to ask.

Cr Scantlebury asked whether if an auxiliary plant, were put iu it would be for the small generators. Mr Mandeno replied that it would bo for one of them, which would be sufficient for tho essential lighting. He thought an engine could be purchased for about £IOOO, and the whole work should cost well under £2OOO.

Cr Wrigley asked Mr Mandeno whether ho thought a mistake had been made iu increasing tho power at Omanawa, instead of going to a new site. There was considerable opinion that an error of judgment had been made in going to Omauawa at all.

Mr Mandeno said ho was very pleased Or Wrigley had asked the question because it was a point that ratepayers should understand. His opinion was that Ornanawa would always prove a very valuable asset to the district, at any rate so long as hydro-electric power was used, unless some catastrophe occurred to put it out of action. He said that mainly on account of the economical job which the borough had there. Nearly IOOOh.p. could be developed there, and the cost had been between £23,000 and £24,000 (that was the amount actually spent at Ornanawa) which worked out at something like £25 per horse power. The Government was at present putting in a plant at Mangahao capable ultimately of developing 24,000b.p., and the engineers estimated that it would cost over £l, 000,000 or more than £4O per horse power. There was no complaint in Wellington • as to the high cost of this job as it was recognised that when power was available it would be a boon to the district. Yet we had a plant here, although very much smaller, which had actually cost, a very great deal less per horse power, and in hydro-electric work the cost per horse power was the figure of prime importance, because it was the figure more than any other which determined the cost at which power could be produced. There were of course other items which were not dependent on the first cost of the v,*ork. Tiro staff had

to be paid which was more or less independent of the cost per horse power-—that was about the only other factor not influenced directly by the original cost of the job, and in view of this fact ho claimed that the community had a very fine as-, set in Omanawa. It would always be so, and he did not see that any blame could be laid on anyone’s shoulders that Omanawa had been developed right up to its full capacity rather than going to the Wairoa. Although it may be said that it would have paid the district to have gone to Wairoa straight away, it was impossible for anyone at the time to forsee that it would have been possible to build a scheme such as I have now outlined in my report, and get anything like sufficient revenue to make it a payable proposition. He thought that bad Wairoa been developed seven or eight years ago probably a smaller scheme than what he had now suggested would have been undertaken, a scheme involving an ultimate capacity of 1000h.p., which would have been quite impossible to work in with the bigger scheme now suggested, consequently had that been done the Council would have not been in such a favourable position as it now is. In Omanawa the borough bad a plant capable of developing 900 h.p. continuously day and night, and he anticipated that that was how it would ultimately be run, and the station at Wairoa, which would be fed by a storage reservoir, would carry the peak loads, and that combination—of one station running full power continuously and parallel with another station which has a storage capacity to carry the peaks, is an ideal one. He was confident that the council would have that opinion borne out by any other electrical engineer. Cr Whiting supported the proposed scheme. It was quite the proper thing to do seeing that the Tauranga comity power board was in existence and would soon be wanting power, It was quite time the borough made a start to provide that power, as it was clear the Government would not be able to supply power in the district for at least eight or nine years, and long before then the district would be crying out for power which the borough should be ready to supply. He did not anticipate any difficulty in regard to the license. The borough was supplying current cheaper than the Government itself and there would be no question of it taking over the plant so long as the borough kept below the Government figures. Cr Wrigley expressed his regret that there was not a full attendance and urged that the discussion be postponed to enable every councillor to be present. He also thought the council should get the advice of the be lib authority available. Cr Jones pointed out that it was proposed to get outside advice before the scheme was placed before the ratepayers.

The Mayor said he regretted that all tho councillors were not present, but at their wish the meeting had been fixed for that evening, and he saw ho reason for postponing the discussion. There was no guarantee that there would be a full attendance at any other meeting. He was not iu favour of putting in an auxiliary engine, as lie did not think it would be of much use. He was in favour of the proposal. If councillors had read the report carefully they would sec that it was not proposed to go for the full amount of £75,000 to fully harness the stream, but only for £46,000 at present. This was not a new scheme. Not long after he was elected he had discussed the matter with Mr Mandeno, but' the matter had to be deferred until the time was opportune. The late Councillor Castaing had also taken a keen interest in the proposal, find Cr Jones, who was now chairman of the electricity committee was also saisfied that the proposal was a sound one. Reference to Mr Mandeno’s report would show how the business had grown of late years and it must be apparent to everyone that in a very short time wo would be using all the power we were now generating. He therefore considered it advisable to go for tbe Wairoa scheme wthout delay. Cr Scantlebury asked whether it was proposed to have a public meeting before placing the proposal before tbe ratepayers.

The Mayor said he thought it would be advisable to do so, but nothing could be done until the Minister’s reply was received. Cr Wrigley intimated that he would have to vote against- the proposal as there was not a full meeting. He accordingly moved as an amendment that the matter be held over for one week. There was no seconder for the amendment.

Cr Jones then replied briefly, and (he motion was put and carried, Cr Wrigley alone voting against it.