Report On Cook Strait Cable Expected Soon

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29051, 13 November 1959, Page 14

Report On Cook Strait Cable Expected Soon

“Th« Press’- Special Service WELLINGTON, November 12. The future of the £l6 million Cook Strait power cable scheme should be decided in a report expected in Wellington within the next few days from the English consultants Preece, Cardrew and Ryder. On the report hang major policy decisions about the construction of power stations to supply growing North Island demands for electricity. The report is expected to say that the plan is feasible, but will warn the Government to proceed slowly.

The proposal for the cable, which would carry power from economical hydro-electric stations in the South Island to the elec-tricity-hungry North Island, is the most ambitious plan of its type in the world. Nowhere else have underwater cables been built or planned to carry as much power over so long 3 distance. Eventually it is hoped that the scheme may transfer more than a million kilowatts —more than the present North Island usage—between the two islands. Initially it would carry perhaps a tenth of this. If the report is favourable the Government could decide to press on with the completion of the vast Waitaki and Clutha hydroelectric schemes, which have a potential of about two million kilowatts. It would delay the construction of hydro-electfic schemes planned for the North Island, such as the Motu and Wanganui developments. It is estimated that the cost of the cable itself would be about £3 million, and that the cost of the complete transmission system from Benmore, on the Waitaki river, to Wellington, would be about £l6 million. Advocates of the scheme say it, would help the Electricity Department to make the best use of the hydro-electric resources of both islands. Because of the climatic differences of the two islands water storage is generally dwindling in the North Island during the summer. It is then that storage is plentiful in the South Island as the vast frozen watersheds of the Southern Alps melt Water storage in the south is scarce during the winter. In September, Mr A. E. Davenport general manager of the Electricity Department, discussed the project at the annual conference of the Electrical Supply Authorities Association. “Future planning,” he said, “depends upon the report. It is clear that the planning committee must meet as soon as the report is received. It will be a vital meeting.” Mr Davenport said then that if

the cable scheme was approved sufficient additional power for the North Island until 1969 would be provided by the Benmore station ' and by Matahana, which will be started this year on the Rangitaiki river in the Bay of Plenty. If it was rejected, two schemes would have to be built on the Rangitaiki, the Upper Waikato scheme completed, and the Wairakei geothermal station developed to stage 111. >.A length of submarine cable, similar to that planned to be used, was laid in Cook Strait about a year ago and is undergoing tests. The Electricity Department has also had a survey of the floor of Cook Strait completed, so that a route for the cable can be decided.