Generating power for Christchurch

Press, 5 August 1988, Page 22

Generating power for Christchurch

The Christchurch City Council investigated the possibility of lighting the city streets with electricity as early as 1888.

Various tenders were received from England and America, but at a special meeting on July 16, 1888, the idea was dropped owing to the high cost.

A few months later, Professor Bickerton wrote to the Council suggesting the use of water from the Avon to generate electricity. How the professor proposed to do this was not recorded. In the meantime, a few businesses set up generating plants to light their own buildings and those nearby. This, however, did not constitute a public supply. The first public electricity supply for Christchurch commenced on July 25, 1903. Turbines were driven by steam from a rubbish-burning device set up in the grounds of the present M.E.D. This was a direct current system and fed only the central city. The most distant consumer was probably the Christchurch Public Hospital. This arrangement continued until about 1914 when the Public Works Department was completing its first hydro electric power scheme at Lake Coleridge.

Coleridge was built to supply Christchurch and much of Canterbury. Generation started in 1915 and the entire city was supplied with electricity by 1917. The Christchurch City Council was interested in the hydro-electric generation possibilities from the Canterbury high country. For many years the Council was keen to establish a

power station in the Waimakariri Gorge.

The Waimakariri scheme was suggested because the council thought that the Coleridge power station would soon be unable to supply the entire city. The council also wanted a lever to reduce power prices charged by the Government.

By 1922, shortages of electricity prompted the council to seek adviqe overseas to build a dam at Otarama in the Waimakariri Gorge. The then Mayor of Christchurch, Dr Thacker, was especially enthusiastic about the scheme. He thought that surplus power could be used for an electrified railway to the West Coast.

The Otarama dam, inland from Springfield, was to be the first of a series on the river and the total generating capacity was to be some 14D,000kW from four power stations. Much of the preliminary planning was done for the Waimakariri scheme, but when the council decided to go ahead, the Government expressed its opposition to independent electricity generation. Unfortunately, the council realised that a long fight would have to be won before the Waimakariri scheme could commence.

The final blow came when the Government offered to supply Christchurch from the national grid at a cheaper rate until 1937. The council accepted and when the expected power shortages followed, it had to live with the thought that a viable scheme had been surrendered too easily. At present, there are no plans to generate electricity from the Waimakariri, but the river could have potential as a site for a power station some time in the future.