IMMEDIATE START ON AVIEMORE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29962, 25 October 1962, Page 12

IMMEDIATE START ON AVIEMORE

Power Needed From £2 2m Project By 1968 (N2. Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 24. An immediate start is to be made on construction of the £22 million Aviemore hydro-electric station on the Waitaki river. The 220,000-kilowatt station will be sited 11 miles downstream from Benmore. The first electricity would be required by April, 1968, the Minister of Electricity (Mr Goosman) said tonight. The scheme called for a concrete and earth dam half a mile long. Aviemore’s four 55,000-kilowatt generators would be the largest in the country. The civil engineering designs and construction proposals had been prepared by the Ministry of Works and a detailed design would now be pushed ahead as rapidly possible, Mr Goosman said.

No special construction village will be needed. Mr Goosman said the Government proposed using a combination of departmental forces and private contractors, much as at Benmore, and to bring workers to the site by bus from Otematata. The station would feed the South Island system at 220,000 volte through existing transmission lines. By the time it came into service the North and South Island systems would be linked by the 600,000-kilowatt cable between Benmore and Haywards, near Wellington. The decision on the project was in accord with the recommendation of the Planning Committee on Electric Power, Mr Goosman said. “A prompt start on Aviemore is essential to avoid a shortage of electricity in 1968,” said Mr Goosman. “All the relevant factors were considered by the planning committee, including the Manapouri proposals and the possible effects of natural gas. “Since there is still no indication of when power may

become available from Manapouri, the Aviemore project must be started at once to ensure that electricity needs from 1968 onwards are met.

“If necessary, Manapouri can, in due course, take precedence over other stations planned for the Waitaki river.”

Mr Goosman said no-one knew how natural gas would affect the demand for electricity. But any effect would probably be gradual and could not eliminate the need for power from Aviemore in early 1968. Aviemore would be 11 miles downstream from Benmore and four miles upstream from the Waitaki power station. The general conception of the scheme was unlikely to change, but many details could be fixed only as the design proceeded and foundations were opened u>p. Mr Goosman said he envisaged the dam of concrete where it occupied the riverbed and of earth on the gently sloping Otago bank. The total concrete will

probably be 800,000 cubic yards—about the same as used in the Roxburg’ hydro dam. “The concrete dam is likely to be up to 190 ft high from foundations to crest, and the earth dam at the core 150 ft.” Mr Goosman said the dam’s penstocks would be 23ft in diameter—New Zealand’s biggest and large even by world standards.

“Each generating unit will require, while on full load, 6000 cubic feet of water every second. This is equivalent to the total annual mean flow of the Waikato river in its middle reaches between Atiamuri and Whakamaru."