Clyde dam

Press, 15 June 1982, Page 18

Clyde dam

Sir. — Official figures provided to the Planning Tribunal put the cost of electricity produced by the Clyde high dam at 3.63 cents a kilowatt hour and by the low dam at 3.96 cents, in March 1980 dollars. A new study of international power costs to aluminium smelters by the overseas Commodities Research Unit. Ltd, finds these average 2.22 U.S. cents a kilowatt hour, with the highest rates prevailing in Asia and the lowest in Africa. Hosting smelters for multinationals is an expensive luxury, particu-. larly if one aspires to be an "African” rather than an "Asian”' nation. The Government says an identical amount of electricity will be required by the same date, smelter .or no smelter. Has it some major alternative South Island developments up its sleeve for which such a massive block of power could be used? Of course not. South Island rivers will be plundered to send further power by a new Cook Strait cable to a North already flush with steam coal and natural gas. A natural gas pipeline to the South Island? What economic madness! — Yours, etc.. ERIC BENNETT. June 13. 1982.