Power Demand Increase For Next Five Years

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31987, 14 May 1969, Page 7

Power Demand Increase For Next Five Years

In the next five years, he estimated that $2.7m would be needed for capital work, and that $1.07m of this would come from revenue, the General Manager (Mr S. E. Slatter) told the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board yesterday. Mr Slatter said that he estimated that by 1973-74, the board's maximum demand would have risen from the present 39.3 megawatts to 56 megawatts, that the units used would rise from 196.6 m to 280 m and that the number of consumers would go from 15,200 to about 18,000. He assumed that the growth rate would remain at its present level of 7.3 per cent. The figures would need revision if the growth rate was in excess of the assumption.

In reviewing the 1968-69 statistics, Mr Slatter said that the 5668kVA of transformer capacity added to the system was the lowest since 1965. Housing growth had been confined to private enterprise subdivisions, and it was unlikely that the Housing Division would proceed with subdivisions in the near future.

“These are not the halcyon years when housing subdiyi-

sions were going on all over the place,” he said. The two-part tariff had applied for the whole year, and the cost per unit had risen from 0.615 c in 1966-67 to 0.719 c, said Mr Slatter. The board last year got 1.307 c revenue from each unit, compared with 1.223 c the previous year.

Industrial comsumption was approaching 60 per cent bf the total. Two “very substantial" industrial connections had been made last year, and recent announcements presaged increased industrial demand in the coming year. New district sub-stations and back-up circuits had reduced greatly the inconvenience caused by shut-downs, he said. In many instances, work could now be done during normal working hours, and in other cases, much of the routine work involved shut-downs for very small groups.

The 11,000-volt circuits in urban Paparua bad been revamped to provide alternative supplies for much of the industry and in townships, the supply had been reinforced. Extensions -and alterations had increased reliability of supply to many poultry farmers.