Power restraint eases hitches

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 1

Power restraint eases hitches

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

Electricity supply authorities in Canterbury say co-operation from consumers and the weather helped yesterday’s enforced power cuts pass with minimal disruption.

The power cuts were caused by industrial action by Electricorp generation workers, who closed down several stations in protest at the breakdown of their award talks. The action forced authorities to cut supply to consumers on a rotating basis, but the cuts were minimised by consumers responding to calls to voluntarily limit consumption. The worst affected appeared to be rural consumers in the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board area, some of whom were still in the middle of milking when the power went off, earlier than they expected, about 7.15 a.m.

The board’s deputy general manager, Mr Alistair Robertson, said the original advice from Electricorp was that the load would have to be shed by 8 a.m., and the board had planned to start cuts about 7.30 a.m. Revised times, necessitating earlier cuts, were received on Tuesday, too late to be advertised to consumers, he said. He believed some farmers were able to finish milking when the power was restored about iy 2 hours later.

Apart from the “shaky start,” the exercise had gone more smoothly than expected. Loadings were considerably lower than usual, showing that consumers

were taking steps to conserve power, which meant that cuts could be shorter and over smaller areas than would otherwise have been possible, said Mr Robertson. Canterbury had been lucky with the weather, unlike Otago and Southland where cold southerlies boosted demand. By the time the southerly change reached Christchurch, it had weakened to the point that temperatures dropped several degrees but forecast hail did not eventuate. It brought electrical storms to some ■ areas, however, and a lightning strike added to the C.C.E.P.B.’s problems when it blew a transformer. The M.E.D. received a number of complaints about the Addington Raceway, where the track lighting was being conspicuously tested in preparation for this evening’s Canterbury Park Trotting Club meeting. A call to the raceway had the lights quickly switched off. The Addington Raceway secretary, Mr Trevor Davis, said that it was “very unfortunate” for the testing to have happened while, consumers were being asked to conserve power. Had he realised the contractor had scheduled the check for yesterday, he would have put it off until this morning, he said.