Power limits next week

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33452, 6 February 1974, Page 3

Power limits next week

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 5. Power restrictions will be introduced from February 11 to alleviate electricity shortages caused by the oil crisis and reduced levels of the hydro lakes.

Measures announced today by the Minister of Electricity (Mr McGuigan)) are on the isame lines as those introduced last winter when ■the hydro levels fell. I The measures include: A request to domestic users to reduce power use by 10 per cent. ■Cuts in television broadcasting hours. Industrial and commercial economies in power use. ;Cuts in the duration and intensity of street lighting. ■All power authorities to be I reduced to 95 per cent of normal allocation from February 11. As was done last winter, each supply authority will decide its own method of achieving the 5 per cent reduction and power cuts, if I any, will be decided locally. 1 “The main emphasis will ; be on cutting down electricity use in the home,” said Mr I McGuigan. “This will minimise disruption to industrial output, thereby safeguarding employment and avoiding loss of income and consequent hardship.” Mr McGuigan said the Electricity Department last year was New Zealand’s biggest user of oil products, burning 359,000 tons, and any savings it could make would be significant. Had it not been for the oil crisis, it would have been reasonable to have expected a winter free of electricity restrictions, mainly because of the commissioning of the big New Plymouth power station. Hydro storage was very low at present. December was a record dry month, and there was very little rain in January. Hydro storage was

only 55 per cent of that at the corresponding time last year. “Lack of water, added to the shortage of oil, makes the prompt introduction of electricity restrictions the only prudent course,” Mr McGuigan said. The coal-fired Meremere power station would be used as much as possible, and the Wairakei geothermal station would work as usual. Natural gas would be used at Otahuhu, but even with these stations working to i capacity there was no escapi ing the need for economy. I “Co-operation by all sectors in saving electricity will see us through the winter with the least inconvenience,” he said. “Domestic economies are a contribution each of us can make toward helping the country deal with its energy shortage.”