POWER FOR WEST COAST

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22195, 11 September 1937, Page 16

POWER FOR WEST COAST

RECONSTRUCTION OF DIESEL PLANT PROGRESS OF LINE OVER MOUNTAINS [From Our Parliamentary Reporter] WELLINGTON, September 10. Although the Government has not yet taken over the electric power scheme on the West Coast at Greymouth, it has been decided that the Public Works Department should undertake the job of repairing the dam on the Arnold river at Kaimata, where the Grey Electric Power Board generates its supply for a very big area. The repairs which are being undertaken will be at the expense of the board, hut all work and supervision will be done by the department. The Government proposes to take over the full scheme for supply on the West Coast when the Diesel plant has been installed in the old powerhouse of the board at Dobson. It is expected that the Government will then be in a position to meet all the demand over there, particularly for the big gold dredging plants which are being installed up and down the Coast. All the Diesel plant which was the city's stand-by plant at Christchurch has now been transferred to Dobson, and substantial progress has been made with its erection. Once the Diesel plant is workable, the Government will take over the entire West Coast supply scheme,' according to the terms of the purchase from the Grey Electric Power Board. The Diesel plant will only be used until the completion of the erection of the transmission line from the Coleridge scheme on the Canterbury side. Work on this transmission line is being retarded by delay in the deliveries of poles from Australia, but the major constructional work necessary —the erection of towers over the bigger rivers which have to be crossed, and over Arthur's Pass—is proceeding to schedule. A contract has been let to a West Coast firm for a big portion of the job on that side—the construction of the line from Arahura, near Hokitika, the point at which the line comes down to the Coast after crossing the mountains, to Dobson, the central distribution point This transmission line is one of the most spectacular constructional jobs of its kind the department has undertaken. The Diesel generating plant at Dobson has some significance for Canterbury. Although it has been shifted from Lyttelton in certain circumstances it will still be available as a standby plant for Christchurch. In the event of a breakdown in the Waitaki reticulation system, for instance, which would effect the city supply seriously, the Diesel plant at Dobson will be used to meet the shortage, it being quite an easy matter to switch the supply back across the mountains into Canterbury.