LAKE COLERIDGE POWER SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22437, 25 June 1938, Page 16

LAKE COLERIDGE POWER SUPPLY

STEADY PROGRESS OP REPAIRS MOST OF RESTRICTIONS LIFTED Seven of the nine generators at Lake Coleridge are now working and the position was improved so considerably by yesterday that the only stand-by plant in Christchurch still in operation was that of the Tramway Board. By night and day work on the part of the engineering staff. Lake Coleridge station is producing 22,000 kilowatts and it is hoped to have another generator, with a capacity of 7500 kilowatts, working to-day. The repairs have been made with such satisfactory speed that normal supplies of power are now being made to both Dunedin and Oamaru, and the stand-by plant at Oamaru is no longer needed. . Temporary repairs to the badly damaged switch-gear are being made expeditiously. reported the electrical branch of the Public Works Department last evening, and by to-morrow night. Lake Coleridge should be on a satisfactory footing once again. The carrying out of permanent repairs will follow. Dunedin Affected The effect of the breakdown at Lake Coleridge was felt In Dunedin, when it was announced during Wednesday afternoon that no power would be available for that city from the Waitaki station, the whole output of which was required to provide Christchurch and the surrounding country with current. The entire load in Dunedin was therefore thrown on the City Corporation’s plant at Waipori, and the steam and Diesel auxiliaries in the city. An appeal was made to the large consumers In Dunedin by the city electrical engineer (Mr G. T. Edgar) to use any stand-by plants they might have, or otherwise to economise as much as possible in the use of power in order to try to lessen the peak load between 2.30 pm. and 5.30 p.m, and although this appeal met with a good response it was still found necessary to ration some of the larger consumers in different parts of the city for a short period- When the manufacturing concerns ceased operations for the day, however, the position improved considerably, and from about 5.15 p.m. onwards it was found possible to supply the city and country requirements without overloading.