POWER FOR CITIES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31115, 19 July 1966, Page 8

POWER FOR CITIES

Stations Must Be Close "The provision of electricity is so important to the maintenance of city services that construction of peakload stations within built-up areas must be faced,” the Minister of Electricity, Mr Shand, said in presenting to Parliament the annual report of the New Zealand Elolricity Department “Our problem is that the past surfeit of hydroelectricity has blinded us to what increasing demands must force upon us.” The Minister said he had given much thought to the impact of this increasing demand on New Zealand’s economy and on communities in particular. To illustrate the problem, in less than 20 years more electricity would be used annually north of the Bombay Hills than was used in the whole of New Zealand last year. At the same time the area between Huntly and Turangi would have absorbed the whole of the generating capacity in the centre of the North Island. This meant that within that period all the electricity needed in the Auckland region would have to be produced in thermal stations located within the area. Security Of Supply Mr Shand said: “After the major disruption to supply last November in north-east-ern Uuited States and Canada I called for the department to study the security of supply in New Zealand. “The present major use o hydro-electric generation and our use of central control means that after a system disturbance, supply could be restored reasonably quickly. "When thermal generation becomes more general, baseload plants using nuclear fuel can be put on the outskirts of Auckland on the Kaipara Harbour and the Firth of Thames, but security of supply for a large city such as Auckland makes the location of 1 -1c 1 plants within the built-up area very Important" Major objections on amenity grounds had followed the announcement that the first of these plants was to be built on the department's property at Otahuhu, the Minister said. This was despite assurances, based on technical data and on observation of similar plant that neither in noise nor fumes was there any reason to doubt that acceptable standards could be met or exceeded. The provision of electricity was so important to maintenance of city services that construction of these peak-load stations within built-up areas had to be faced.