Electricity use up 10 p.c. this winter

Press, 17 June 1982, Page 1

Electricity use up 10 p.c. this winter

Canterbury electricity consumers are using about' 10 per cent more power this winter than last year. The Municipal Electricity Department reports that consumption is up 10 per cent and the. Central Canterbury Electric Power board sold 9.6 per cent more power by the end of May than it did in the same period last year. However, because of an absence of cold southwesterly winds, neither supplier has recorded a peak load as high as last year. The M.E.D. has cut waterheating to reduce loads on several days, but has hot yet had to declare a ‘'peak load day” on which it asks consumers to save power. "Operation peak load” advertisements have appeared in newspapers to encourage

people to conserve electricCoal merchants reported a mixed, demand for. their products this winter. The owner of Maddens and : Richards,. Ltd, Mr J. W. Donaldson, said people were buying less than half as much coal as last year. He ■ was. ‘’amazed” that high - smog levels continued to be recorded when less coal was being, used. “Electricity suppliers must I

have done a marvellous’ job selling their power," he said.. However,,the ownermanager of thePapanui Coal Company, Mr Lynden . Bar, said that after a slow start, coal sales were picking up. Mr Bar said people soon forgot their concerns about clean air and pollution in favour of getting, warm. He also * reported a big demand for firewood which, he said, was increasing every year.. . .