THE POWER SHORTAGE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 121, 17 February 1944, Page 4

THE POWER SHORTAGE

After a detailed and dispassionate review of the circumstances that have led up to the present unsatisfactory position of the electricity service the Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities’ Association, while renewing its assurance of giving all the assistance it can to ensure a continuing supply of power, has felt impelled to state that “it woiild accept no responsibility for, a position which it had done its best to avert.” The difficulty is not in distribution, although probably that phase has its own problems, but in the provision of power in bulk, and that is entirely a responsibility of the Government of the day. The bpards are able to show that several years ago they drew attention to the position that was developing. In return they received a ministerial assurance that “there need be no fear that the development of the last three years will continue at the same rate,” the basis of the statement being a belief that “the normal needs of . the people have been met and we have reached a point where gradual development will take place.” , That prediction has not been borne out by the facts, and today the problem—and it is an increasingly urgent one—is the provision' of bulk supply at the earliest possible moment. The Minister, last November, belatedly outlined a ten-year plan for the further development of hydro-electric installations in the Dominion, but/the power boards, in close contact with the consumers and probably the best placed to estimate the growth of the demand, hold that this will not assist in meeting the needs in the next three or four years. They urge that something should be done that would Eridge the gap between the immediate requirements and the coming into operation of the major installations, and their suggestion, as recommended by a special committee of the association, is that, in order to meet requirements to 1947, existing plans should be supplemented by the immediate installation of small generating plants—steam, Diesel or hydro—to a total capacity of 70,000 k.w. , Stress has been laid, in ministerial statements, on the difficulty, if not impossibility, of obtaining the necessary plant for new installations. Discussing this point in these columns recently instances were given of a huge hydro-electric installation being completed in Canada since the outbreak of war and of contracts running into large sums being placed by Australia for other plant. Newspapers that have just arrived from Melbourne contain this interesting announcement: “The first really large Victorian hydro-electric scheme is now under construction at Kiewa. It will go into the first stage of output some time this year, with a flow of 20,000 kilowatts.” Apparently the Victorian authorities have been able to obtain the generating machinery for this undertaking, or at least sufficient to enable about one-fifth of its potential capacity to be made available. Then there is the statement of the chairman of the Auckland Electric Power Board that one of the four 40,000-kilowatt sets now being installed in South Africa “could have been made available for New Zealand,*but the opportunity was missed.” Yet the people of the Dominion are asked to accept the difficulty in obtaining plant as a sufficient reason for the failure to provide increased generating power. It is obvious, however, that the Government entirely misjudged the country’s requirements and committed a grave blunder when, some years ago, they ignored the recommendations of the Power Boards urging the need for provision to meet the growing demand for electric power.