Saving Power For Next Year

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26868, 22 October 1952, Page 8

Saving Power For Next Year

The week-end rain has ended the power shortage in the South Island, and, given normal spring and summer rainfall in the catchment areas, there should be no further crisis this year. That does not mean that the supply authorities, national and local, can dispense with allocations and restrictions, 'or consigners relax their care in the use of power. It is now the responsibility and the interest of authorities and consumers to prepare against the shortage of 1953, which may well prove the most prolonged and severe yet experienced in the South Island. There will fee no additions, either of generating plant or storage works, to meet a demand on the South Island system which by next winter may have increased by anything up to 10 per cent. To say that the same amount of power will have to be apportioned among a larger number of consumers, however, puts the best possible face on the prospects for 1953. There may be less power available to meet the increased demand; and there will be less if the storage lakes are not full at the end of the summer. The prime objective of policy now should be to fill the lakes. If the season is favourable

the lakes may fill, and even overflow, without any special restraint in the use of power. But until that result is assured, the draw-off for generation should be kept to a convenient minimum. Hitherto, summer allocations to supply authorities in the South Island have been no more than nominal, because strict observance has not been important. The position this year is very different. The State Hydro-electric Department must this year fix allocations designed to ensure that the lakes are full by next autumn; and it must see that the allocations are observed so long as they remain necessary. How that can best be done should be considered without delay by the department and the supply authorities. For some the problem is largely solved by the central control of water-heaters. Others mayhave to choose between arbitrary cuts and individual quota rationing. Because the latter course is the more equitable and also less disturbing to all kinds of power users, it is to be preferred. But quota systems take a long time to prepare and to apply. The department should represent to all supply authorities which have failed to keep within their allocations this year the desirability of adopting individual quota rationing as soon as possible. This would have two great advantages. It would ensure that quota rationing is effective in time for next winter’s shortage; and it would help to minimise that shortage by building up storage during the summer. Only positive action of this kind can save the South Island from serious hardship and inconvenience if the season is unfavourable. But it may not be easy to convince all supply authorities of the need. That •is clearly shown by the almost indecent haste of some authorities to lift restrictions which have failed—and failed consistently and by wide margins—to keep their consumption within the limits set by the State Hydro-electric Department during the recent emergency.