POWER STATION SITES

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 121, 22 May 1920, Page 9

POWER STATION SITES

TO THE EDITOR. ' Sir,—There have been several letters in your journal dealing with the question " of the site of the power stations. With one or two exceptions these letters are supposed to be from men in a position to discust the question. I do not propose to deal with the technical side of the question, but I would like to deal with it from' the commercial side, and all these undertakings must be run on a sound commercial basis. A glance at the city's last balance-sheet of the tramways and lighting department will show that over. • 50. per cent, of the power station charges are capital charges, consquently.it should be easily Seen that we must he exceedingly careful about increasing . these capital charges. Granted some increase is unavoidable, but it must be kept at the lowest point consistent with proper provision, for the needs of the city For the last five years we have talked of hydro-electric power, and what it was going to do for the Dominion in the way of cheap power and conservation of coal, and it surely must come as a shock to the public to be told by some of your correspondents that there is nothing in this hydro scheme, as that is really what it .amounts "to when they urge the erec-i tion of a new steam power house. However, I am not likely to pay attention to their misleading statements, but prefer to base my estimates on the report of Mr. Parry, late Dominion electrical engineer, in conjunction with the experience gained here and in otheracities of the Dominion. ■ Mr. Parry estimates Mangahao to : develop 24,000 h.p.; Lake Coleridge is at present developing 8000 h.p. The maximum load in Wellington is, I understand, about 8700 h.p., but this is only in the winter time, and for a very short period. In the summer time the load is only a little over 5000 h.p. From these figures it is apparent that there is ample power for Wellington for the present, but Mr. Parry in his scheme 'provides for more power being available through the development of Lake Waikaremoana, and some of your correspondents advocate the development. of the Hutt River. These schemes, if developed, will make the need for a stand-by plant (steam) unnecessary, and it would only handicap the undertaking with heavy capital charges, which would have to be passed on to the consumer.

The future of oitf electrical development here depends on being able to, supply current at low rates, much lower than we have them at the present day, and this can never be attained by increasing our capital charges through erecting a new power station. . A comparison with our rates, and those obtaining in bunedin and Christchurch, will demonstrate this fully. It must be remembered that Dunedin has had the hydro-power for 13 years, and is to-day only developing 6000 h.p., and selling their power at prices we cannot look at. I have given this matter very serious consideration, and am firmly of opinion that our policy should be to install sufficient plant in Harris-street to enable us to carry on until th,e hydro scheme is available- Our experts advise us there is sufficient room there; this, I consider, will be in the best interests of the electrical undertakings and the city.—l am, etc., A.B. 20th May.