Levels of hydro lakes steady

Press, 17 March 1977, Page 5

Levels of hydro lakes steady

Hydro storage lakes just managed to maintain their levels over-all last week, in spite of efforts by the New Zealand Electricity Department to conserve water storage by using oil-fired thermal plant.

The general manager of the N.Z.E.D. (Mr P. W. Blakeley) said: “The running strategy continue; to be the use of oil-fired thermal plant to conserve water storage. But during last week, in spite of appreciable thermal generation, we were only holding our own with waterstorage levels.” The North Island storage continued its steady decline, but there was a small increase in the South Island

storage. The North Island lakes were 53 per cent of normal full last week, and the South Island lakes 59 per cent

The expenditure on oil for generation last week was $725,000.

The Christchurch manager of the N.Z.E.D. (Mr G. B. Collie) said it was impossible to predict levels of hydro lakes, and blackouts could not be predicted.

However, 80MW would be added to the national grid about May, when the first generator of the Tekapo B scheme was brought into use, he said, and a month later an additional 80MW would be available from the second generator in the scheme.