Thermal Stations To Be In Cities

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30981, 10 February 1966, Page 1

Thermal Stations To Be In Cities

(New Zealand Press Association* WELLINGTON, February 9. I'he Minister of Electricity (Mr Shand) warned today that New Zealand must expect some thermal power stations to be located within city limits.

“In New Zealand we have come to regard electricity as something produced in remote areas and transmitted by power lines to service our towns.

“But it is not generally appreciated that this pattern of electrical development is exceptional, and that in most cities of the world without hydro-electric resources power is supplied principally from a complex of coal or oilburning stations within city confines,” he said. Mr Shand was explaining in a statement proposals for an oil-fuelled gas turbine generating station near the present Otahuhu sub-station. “It is a shock for New Zealanders to appreciate that in future we, too, must rely on thermal stations for an increasing share of our electricity load," said the Minister.

Listing 'the principal reasons for the development, Mr Shand said: Entire dependence on a system of long transmission lines—with their liability to interruption—was a risk which would become increasingly difficult to accept. There was an aesthetic objection against transmission lines. Power stations in or near a city could be a vital ad- ( vantage in an emergency. ■ It cost too much to lay transi mission lines underground. ; Mr Shand said a compelling I reason for building power stations within or close to the main area of demand was cost. . “Coal and oil-burning power stations consume fuel in very large quantities and require big volumes of cooling water,” he said. “They must have suitable

port facilities to service them i tricity substantially as well as —and to build them at any creating serious technical distance from these facilities difficulties and hazards,” said would increase the cost of elec-' the Minister.