Cabinet studies power cutting

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33279, 17 July 1973, Page 1

Cabinet studies power cutting

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 16. The Cabinet has made the first step towards possible rationing of power, but no actual decision to ration has yet been made.

The Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) said tonight that the downward trend in lake storage had reached the stage where it might soon be necessary to request some specific percentage reduction in electricity use. "Each supply authority has been given a basic energy allocation for every week to the end of October,” he said.

"By agreement with the Electrical Supply Association these allocations will form the basis for any necessary n..ioning of energy.” Mr Kirk said that the Cabinet had decided that if there was no definite improvement the Minister of Electricity (Mr McGuigan) would ask each supply authority individually to make every endeavour to keep within its allocation. Mr Kirk said that since the allocations were an objective assessment of what each authority was likely to use under average weather conditions, they were not strictly cuts. But they made no allowance for increased use of power. All floodlights and fountains owned bv the Christchurch City Council would be out from tomorrow night as a power saving measure, the chairman of the council’s finance committee (Cr D. R. Dowell) said last evening. The M.E.D. would be turning off its shop-display lighting. he said, and he urged commercial businesses to follow the example so that in turn everyone would be encouraged to conserve power and thereby avoid compulsory cuts. The department had been given basic allocations for j power use, and the electricity ! committee said it appeared j acceptable. It was based on ■an estimate of what the denartment would be likely to buy week by week if there were no restrictions, temperature and other weather factors being normal. If restrictions became necessary, the M.E.D. would be given some percentage of its allocation. The council agreed that if direct action was necessary, probably by restricting advertising and display lighting and water-heating power, the general manager of the M.E.D. (Mr J. P. Shelley) and Cr Dowell should have authority to make a decision.