MANGAHAO POWER

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 24 March 1925, Page 7

MANGAHAO POWER

WHERE DOES CITY STAND? “Turbo” Writes: "According to a statement made by the Mayor, the City Council is on the point of drawing power from the Government hydro-elec-tric works at Mangahao, and at the same time he announces that no agreement has yet been signed with the Government in connection with the city’s acceptance of that source, of supply. Furthermore, His Worship could not say what quantity of power the city was prepared to take, though he has said that the public will be making a mistake if it thinks the price of electricity is going to be any cheaper than the commodity at present supplied by the corporation. In view of the fact that we are going to take power from Mangahao at the end of the month, or from April 1, it is not unreasonable for the public of Wellington which is paying for the new power station at Evans Bay to know the terms on which the council is going to take Mangahao power, or is it unreasonable to ask, if the city is not going to effect an economy by accepting tne new power, why it should make any agreement at all with the Government? “On more than one occasion the pub. lie has been informed that the new station at Evans Bay will be able to provide for the total needs of Wellington for some time to come, though it is not doing so at the present time, as uie turbines at the Hams Street station continue to whirr of an evening. At present the big turbine from the old tramways power-house in Jervois Quay is being re-erected in the Evans Bay station, and the assumption is that when it is linked up as a producing unit to the new set. Evans Bay will be able to produce the peak-load needed, without the assistance of. the Harris Street plant. So it means that if the city enters into an undertaking with the Government to provide power, Wellington will have a very efficient plant, on which it has to pay interest and. sinking fund, standing idle; in brief, in addition to the Government charges,, the ratepayers will have to. face a considerable annual interest bill on a plant which at the best can only be regarded as a stand-by. One of the most important points in connection with- the correlation of city and Government plants is the quantity of current Wellington agrees to take <lll the year round from Mangahao. “The first proposal made by the late Government Electrical Engineer was that the city should pay fo'r 24 hours a day all the year round the measure of powet as computed on the basis of the niid-w'inter peak-load; that is to say, the city would be paying for four or five times the current it could consume. Perhaps the unreasonableness of such a proposal has in the meantime undergone some qualification. . . . lhe corporation's new station at Evans Buy may be made an important factor in the negotiations, for with such a. genelating force at its disposal there is no need for the hand of the City Council to be forced in the matter of the all-the-vear-round load. . “The corporation could, if it is economical to do so, quite reasonably set a peak for Government supply, and over and above that rely upon its own plant for anv current required over and above that mark. Further, the corporation should be in a strong position to negotiate successfully, as it will possess the only generating plant in the district that can be considered an efficient standby in case of a break-down at Manga 1-ao. Indeed, when the two turbines are transferred from the Harris Street station at Evans Bay during the coming winter, there will be a sufficiency of power to serve the whole of the district proposed to be supplied by Mangahao “Being in such a strong position, the City Corporation has, at tins stage,, no reason to remain silent on the points raised. Indeed, it is the right of every citizen to know now the precise state ci the negotiations, or at least, whether the acceptance of Mangahao power is going to be an economical consideration either to consumers or ratepayers.