Electricity prediction

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 9

Electricity prediction

Electricity could make a come-back, in spite of a fall in demand over recent years, if predictions by the general manager of the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board (Mr S. E. Slatter) prove to be correct. In his annual statistical report to the board, Mr Slatter said that for the last two years, there had been a “contraction” in the authority’s retailing of electrcity. He attributed this to several factors, including an early identification of electricity as

the energy’ problem and a widespread public conviction that electricity was much dearer than it was 10 or 15 years ago. The energy problem was more correctly a liquidfuel problem. Ln real terms, electricity was not much dearer than it was in- the “booming sixties.” Advantages of electricity as a power source were that its price was highly competitive, it was very clean and manageable. plentiful and mainly generated from renewable resources. . Purchases by the board

in the last financial year had dropped by 2.92 per cent and sales by 2.98 per cent. Industrial and irrigation usage had also dropped. The board’s plant looked after about 60 million mega Watts. It could handle SO. “If electricity gets back, and 1 think it will, we’ll have full handling capacity,” Mr Slatter said. The board’s meeting confirmed ,a. new workshop to be built at Hornby for an estimated $336,065. Hie tender of M. L. Paynter, Ltd, was accepted.