Electricity Dept has loss again of $22M

Press, 6 September 1976, Page 7

Electricity Dept has loss again of $22M

Wellington reporter

The Electricity Department’s annual accounts for 1975-76 were in deficit by $22.607M (compared with $22.708M for 1974-75), according to the department’s annual report. 11 s revenue was 8128.278 M (8H5.924M) but its expenses rose just as sharply to 8150.885 M (8138.632 M — working expenses being 866.680 M ($66.492M), interest 859.383 M ($50.353M) and depreciation 524.822 M (821.787 M

The deficit of 822.607 M was met by a subsidy of 813.07 M from vote stabilisation and a transfer of

59.537 M from the general reserve account. This account comprises surpluses from previous years which have been used to help finance capital works. The revenue rise of 812.354 M was -attributed by the department to increases in energy sales and peak demand. Generation for the public supply had been 20,066 gigawatt hours (one gigawatt hour is IM kilowatt hours), an increase of 9.4 per cent on the previous year.

The annual peak had been 3865 megawatts (one megawatt is 1000 kilowatts). which represented an increase of 10.2 per cent on the previous year’s peak. “These figures represent substantia] increases in generation when regard is taken of the reduction in

use of electricity of the electricity conservation campaign and the somewhat depressed state of the economy applying during the year,” said the department’s general manager (Mr P. W. Blakeley). “Continued co-operation of supply authorities was sought to restrain demand by 5 per cent of authorities’ basic energy guidelines in order to conserve hydro storage and reduce the fuel oil usage.” From April to September, the period of highest demand, New Zealand inflows sad been a record 132 per cent of average. There had been particularly high levels over long periods in Lake Manapouri and Lake Te Anau.

In the corresponding six-month period, the estimated reduction in energy use had averaged about 4.1 per cent, he said. For the rest of 1975, conditions had remained favourable and substantial fuel savings were achieved. However, in the first three months of 1976, with very low inflows and the late commissioning of generating plant on natural gas, there had been an increasing call on oilfired generation to keep hydro storage up in the winter. Annual flows to major North Island catchments had been 119.7 per cent of normal, with over-all utilisation at 99 per cent, but South Island catchment flows (excluding Te Anau and Manapouri, where flow control works had not yet been completed) had been 107.5 per cent of average, with 87 per cent utilisation. Combined inflows had been 112.6 per cent of average for the full year, Mr Blakeley said.