POWER SAVINGS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27404, 17 July 1954, Page 9

POWER SAVINGS

NO EMERGENCY CUTS SO FAR RAIN MAY ARREST STORAGE DECLINE The emergency committee of the Christchurch City Council had not so far decided to impose any emergency power cuts to save units, but it expected consumers to comply with restrictions already published, said the assistant engineer of the Municipal Electricity Department (Mr G. H. Battersby) last evening. If the State Hydro-electric Department required any cuts to be made for peak loading purposes they would be in area B, he said.

Snow and rain falling in the main catchment areas may, in the next few days, help to halt the steady decline in water storage for the South Island power system. The latest definite advice is that there was a fall of nearly 2,000,000 units in the 24 hours to 9 a.m. yesterday. The. reading yesterday morning was 80,900.000 units, compared with 82,760,000 on Thursday morning. The State Hydro-electric Department’s district engineer (Mr W. H. Gregory) said that there was light rain yesterday around Tekapo, but it was not expected to be of much benefit to storage. Heavier rain was falling at Pukaki and there was some snow at Coleridge. A reminder that if the 10 per cent, cut imposed on the South Island system did not prove effective, heavier cuts might be brought in was given by Mr Gregory. On Monday, he said, power supply authorities would have the figures which would indicate how effective the present measures were. Any change in the restrictions, he said, would be announced from Wellington.