HYDRO-ELECTRIC PLAN

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 4, 29 September 1944, Page 4

HYDRO-ELECTRIC PLAN

Board Seeks To Use Lake Omapere A deputation from the Bay of Islands Power Board recently sought from the Minister of Works a licence to use water from Lake Omapere for the purpose or generating electricity. Decision has not yet been given. ' The board’s action was taken on the advice of its consulting engineer, Mr. L. Mandeno, Auckland. In his report to the board Mr. Mandeno said that the Bay of Islands Power Board since the inclusion of Hokianga and Whangaroa counties in its inner area now the largest power district in the Dominion as well as the most isolated and detached. Its problems were in consequence somewhat special. Though the amount of power available from Lake Omapere was relatively small compared with the potentialities of the Waikato River and Waikaremoana sites, yet for the purposes of the board’s district the power available was adequate for considerably more than the present requirements of the district. The power could be developed at a very economical cost, the works could be erected quickly and the nature of the site was such as would ensure dependability of supply in the Far North. Having regard to the remoteness of the board’s district from the main centres of hydro-electric generation in the North Island, for the purpose of ensuring adequate and reasonable security iu the matter of continuity of supply to the'district the development of Lake Omapere was a more economic proposal than the alternative of increasing the number, and capacity of transmission circuits into the district from the Auckland Metropolitan centres of distribution.