Power Supply For Growing Industry

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31088, 17 June 1966, Page 23 (Supplement)

Power Supply For Growing Industry

One of the city’s more spectacular developments in the period since the end of the Second World War has been the growth of industry in the Sockburn, Hornby and Islington areas. With industry has come housing, to transform once-rural land. Meeting the power needs of this expansion is the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board, itself an example of the effects of the city’s growth. Thirty years ago, the board was a small affair concerned chiefly with rural supply.

Since then, the expansion of its workings, first from industrial and domestic demands for power, and secondly by amalgamation of two adjoining board districts, has made it into the South Island’s largest power board in terms of units sold.

The board today represents an amalgamation of the Springs-Ellesmere, Banks Peninsula and Malvern power boards. Banks Peninsula was the second board (after Southland) to be established, in 1920, but the town of Akaroa had one

of the earliest generating sets, to supply the town from 1911. All three boards were predominantly rural in character, and it was not until the Springs-Ellesmere board took over the Paparua county supply in 1923 that the shape of things to come was defined. Paparua contributed some large industrial undertakings which until the board took over had been sup-

plied by the Public Works Department. Sjpce the 19405, there has been spectacular industrial growth in the Sockburn, Hornby and Islington areas.

Company Power The original board gave supply to Springs and Ellesmere counties, and it is of interest to note that the Tai Tapu Dairy Company originally supplied Tai Tapu township, as well as part of Halswell county. The company’s reticulation was added to the board’s district in 1931. Part of Selwyn county came into the district in 1923, and in 1963 the board took over the Banks Peninsula area and changed its name to Central Canterbury. This meant that the board became supplier to thousands of city folk who took their holidays at Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula bays. On April 1, 1965, the board took over the Malvern board’s area. Ample land and good sites have made the SockburnHornby area a highly desirable one for industrial development, and growth has been phenomenal. With it has come an upsurge in home building. This industrial and domestic growth has contributed substantially to the expansion of the board’s activities. The development of the reticulation is a major undertaking, as it is doubling every six years. It is the board’s aim to have underground wiring in new housing subdivisions, on the basis of a contribution from the subdivider or consumer concerned towards the higher cost Higher voltage distributor

wiring is being placed underground as opportunity offers. In the past five years, the board, has installed four 33,000-volt substations, including the one at Christchurch International Airport, the board's biggest individual power consumer, taking as much as the town of Kaiapoi. Three more of these big substations are in the construction or design stage, two of them in the industrial area. The board now has 12.400 consumers, and its capital assets amount to £2,220.714. Revenue from electricity sales last year was £804,482.