HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22245, 9 November 1937, Page 10

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Opinions of Dutch Engineer

LARGE-SCALE GENERATING PLANTS FAVOURED

[THE PRESS Special Service.] WESTPORT, November 8. Keen interest in hydro-electric development in the Dominion is being taken by Mr H, C Kraft, a Dutch electrical engineer, who is touring Australia and New Zealand, following his retirement from the position of first assistant chief engineer to a large private electric supply company in Java, Dutch East Indies. Mr Kraft, who is accompanied by his wife, was in Westport on Saturday on his way to the Westland glaciers. • Large scale hydro-electric generating plants with reticulation by high voltage lines over a wide area are favoured by Mr Kraft as against the system of obtaining power from smaller stations at various points in the supply area; but he said that subsidiary stations could be utilised for stand-by purposes, and to assist with the peak load. The company with which he had been associated for 29 years supplied 69 cities and townships extending over an area 500 miles long. Up to the present power had been supplied from 20 stations ranging from Diesel-operated small stations of 200 horsepower up to the main hydro stations of 1500 horse-power. Mr Kraft said that as Java had its own oil field the operation of Diesel engines was particularly cheap. Mr Kraft said that in Java the Government took no part in the supply of power except to force the company to abide by numerous regulations, many of which were unnecessary. He said he was satisfied that the regulations in use in the Dominion were on a far better commonsense basis. He said that from the supplying authority’s point of view a delivery voltage of 230 volts to the consumer had marked advantages. In Sourabaya, however, the company had been forced to adhere to a voltage of 110 because the Government considered it might otherwise be dangerous for the natives.

While in Westport Mr Kraft, accompanied by Mr O. L. Nahr, a borough councillor, and Mr T. J. Weekes, borough electrical engineer, visited the council’s hydro-electric station at Fairdown. He also held a long conversation with Mr Weekes discussing electric power supply generally in New Zealand. Mr Kraft and his wife will sail for Australia on Friday. He said he deeply regretted that he would not have time to visit at least one of the main hydro-electric stations in the Dominion.