POWER FAILS IN CITY

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 8

POWER FAILS IN CITY

Roxburgh Line

Fault

Power was interrupted for some minutes from 4.50 p.m. yesterday after a fault on a line from the Roxburgh hydro-electric station.

“Roxburgh told us that a flashover between cables was the trouble,” said the district engineer of the State Hydro-electric Department (Mr W. H. Gregory) last evening. No further details were available.

As the break came during the day’s peak load period, this added to the delay. Shortly after 5 p.m. the Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department was given permission to restore load gradually. “So many appliances were left on, and others switched on when power was available again, that many sub-station fuses blew out —cutting off many districts,” said the engineer-manager of the department (Mr G. H. Battersby). Fuses Blown The blowing of the dozen or so fuses in each of the 300 substations in the department’s area was not automatically registered, said Mr Battersby. He often had to wait for consumers to complain before he was aware that a district was without power. “This frequently hanpens when power has to be restored during peak periods,” he said. “But where a feeder line drops out we have automatic registration.” Power was restored to the centre of the city first, then to the outer districts. As complaints were received fuses were repaired, and the last of those areas should have had power before 7 p.m.

“In some cases consumers were not aware that they were among those without power, and they delayed their complaints,” said Mr Battersby. “As soon as we were advised we took action.”