HYDRO POWER RESOURCES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27224, 16 December 1953, Page 9

HYDRO POWER RESOURCES

: WATER STORAGE AT LAKE HAWEA IMMEDIATE START ON CONTROL WORKS (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 15. Construction of the Lake Hawea storage control works, an integral part of the Roxburgh hydro-electric scheme, will start immediately. The Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman) announced this today. The project is expected to take several years to complete. Men working on the Lake Tekapo power scheme, which is now nearly finished, will be transferred to Lake Hawea.

Mr Goosman said a start on the Lake Hawea work had been authorised because it was necessary to tie the project in with the schedule for the completion of the Roxburgh generating station. This provided for the use of four generators in the early stages of the station’s operations, and these would be increased to eight as the demand for electricity grew. The Hawea storage facilities were needed to impound water in the lake during the summer thaw, and it was important that they should be available when Roxburgh approached its full load, Mr Goosman said. The flow in the Clutha river was lowest in the

winter, when the demand for electricity was highest, and because the river was snow-fed, it carried its greatest volume of water during the period of he'avy thaws.

Storage of water during the summer was essential, so that the high generating load required in the winter could be met, he said.

It was proposed to control the flow from Lake Hawea into the river by means of a dam fitted with gate-con-trolled sluices, said Mr Goosman. The dam would be placed across the river upstream of the existing bridge, and a short distance from the outlet of the lake. The storage range from lowest to highest operating level would be about 50 feet.

An earth dam would be built, incorporating a concrete structure to house steel gates which could be raised or lowered to control the flow from the lake.

The Minister said that construction would be in the hands of a team of men who had built up a high standard of efficiency while engaged on the Tekapo control scheme, which to some degree <was similar to that now to be installed at Lake Hawea. The transfer of the men from Tekapo was advantageous to the department, which could make full use of their efficiency and would not have to lose time in welding together another construction unit.