Power Situation Still Grave

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 1

Power Situation Still Grave

Heavy rain yesterday morning fell where it would do more harm than good to the electricity situation. It fell on the plains, causing everyone to turn up his heater, instead of in the mountains, where it could have replenished the storage lakes.

Total storage yesterday was 82,080,000 units, a drop of 3,250,000 units in 24 hours. Generation on Monday was 8,770,000 units, which was 1,991,500 units more than Sunday’s generation. Mr H. W. Jennings, the Electricity Department’s assistant district electrical engineer, said there had been light snow in the Coleridge, Tekapo, Pukaki and Highbank areas and a bit of rain in the Central Otago catchment, but not much.

The Government Life building in Cathedral square switched off its time and temperature clock yesterday, following the lead of Beath and Company. At the Industries Fair overhead interior lighting has been reduced, but the two powerful searchlights continue to light up the sky each night They are powered by petrol engines, and a large number of inquiries have been received about them. The Central Canterbury Electric Power Board has appealed to its consumers to continue with volnutary savings, and warned them that compulsory curtailment of storage waterheating would be necessary if the desired

savings were not achieved voluntarily. The board instructed that electric advertising signs were to be disconnected and shop window and yard lighting would be permitted only on Friday night. All electric radiators, both domestic and commercial, were to be used only in cases of absolute necessity, and waterheaters were to be switched off where consumers had alternative means of heating water. Industries were asked to reduce use of electricity wherever practicable. “If inflows do not increase this month, severe rationing will be unavoidable,” the general manager of the Electricity Department, Mr E. B. Mackenzie, said in Wellington yesterday. In spite of some rain in catchment areas during the last 24 hours, there was no change in the grave situation, he said. "This situation has been made even graver by cold southerly weather which increased yesterday’s consumption to 3,250,000 kilowatt hours,” said Mr Mackenzie. He appealed for full co-opera-tion from consumers in conserving supplies till the spring inflow in October.