NORTH ISLAND POWER

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27699, 1 July 1955, Page 12

NORTH ISLAND POWER

Provision Of More Generators

GREATER URGENCY WANTED (New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH, June 30. Resolutions urging the Government to greater action toward remedying power shortages in the North Island were carried by a meeting of supply authority chairmen in Palmerston North today. One resolution, moved by Mr D. S. Radcliffe (Bay of Plenty) was: “That the Government be requested to treat the lifting of power restrictions in the North Island with extreme urgency, and that the same amount of energy be brought to this task as has been expended on development of the Tasman paper project.” A second resolution was: “That, having regard to the severe economic loss to industry, commerce, and the country as a whole, through the proposed restriction in the usage of electricity, this meeting urges the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) and the Cabinet to give every possible assistance to the State Hydroelectric Department to enable it to overcome the shortage, and to lift the restrictions at the earliest possible moment.” The conference agreed “that the State Hydro-electric Department be urged to reimburse the additional -costs involved where consumers are prepared to use their own generating plant to ease the power shortage, the reimbursement to apply only to the cost of power generated over and above that used by the consumers themselves.” Mr J. A. Steele, of Auckland, said that the Supply Authorities’ Association should continue pressing for the Government to create adequate generating facilities. The joint committee on generation had recommended that a gas turbine station should be incorporated in the system. But now it had been stated that the time of constructing a steam station could be shortened, and it seemed that the gas station proposal might be shelved.

Mr A. R. Woolley (Waitemata) said that the Chief Engineer of the State Hydro-electric Department (Mr M. G. Latta), had left New Zealand on June 8, and should have had time by now to report on the results of his observations of gas turbines in Switzerland. The delay in delivery of his report was holding up the work of the committee on generation. Stand-by Plants The unused potential of stand-by plants already existing in the North Island was discussed by the Mayor of Palmerston North (Mr G. Tremaine) in welcoming representatives to the meeting. “I do not know how many stand-by plants there are in the North Island,” he said. ‘‘When the shortage was acute previously, , the Government paid to have power generated in the plants fed into the grid, but its present policy is to ignore them because of the higher cost of production of electricity. I would suggest that the cost is a small consideration if these stand-by plants could ease the general position.” Mr C. W. Teppett (Palmerston North) said that the Palmerston North diesel station alone could generate 11.000,000 units of electricity a year. Mr M. Barnett (Te Awamutu) said there were six or seven generating

stations at dairy factories in the Wj kato which aF present were lying id The total capacity of these units yd 6000 kilowatts —quite a useful contrid tion to the general system if they wq used. j