Power selling urged

Press, 27 August 1979, Page 7

Power selling urged

The Marlborough Electric Power Board should try to sell its electricity on the domestic and com-merical-industrial markets, the chairman of the board (Mr J. R. E. Moore) said at its monthly meeting. He was commenting on the decrease in units sold in July, compared with sales for the same month last year. The board's secretary (Mr B. J. Hearn) reported that a total of 9,431,499 units had been sold in July, compared with 10,071,768 last year, giving a decrease of 640,269 dr 6.36 per cent. The major decrease for the month was in domestic usage which fell by 621,146 or 7.63 per cent to 7.517,876 units. The non-domestic drop was 0.99 per cent. In spite of the drop in units sold, increased by $93,170 or

30.45 per cent far the month, compared with that for July last year which was $306,204. Thp increase in revenue from domestic sales was $54,400 (26.25 per cent) and from n o n-d omes t i c sales, $38,770 (39.17 per cent). Mr Moore said the trend was “pretty universal” over the whole country. It partly reflected the weather, but there was no doubt that consumer resistance after the increased electricity price was the major factor. “We should go out and start selling power again. It has been stated that we have an over-supply by a considerable amount. If we are down to this extent (in sale of units) and have ample power we should try to sell it, both domestic and industrial.” He said other boards had already started look-

ing for ways and means of increasing electricity sales. The board’s chief engineer (Mr E. D. Hounsell) said he had recently compared the usage of tem-perature-corrected units and this had indicated a 4.2 per cent fall. This undoubtedly showed some consumer resistance to the use of electricity.