EVANS BAY POWER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 79, 2 April 1924, Page 8

EVANS BAY POWER

PLANT UNDER TEST

PRODUCING COSTS BY STEAM AND WATER

STANDBY OR STRAIGHT-OUT STATION?

When the campaign for the buMing of the city's standby power station was commenced about the middle of 1920 much was made of the necessity of augmenting the power supply then available to the city with a minimum of delay, and hopes and promises were held out that the new station proposed could be erected and equipped to supply current a long time before any relief could be exnected from the Government's hydroelectric "scheme at Mangahao. Those hones have not materialised, and so it is that power from the Evans Bay station )i v, current 'ram Mangahno to -he city by a short head only. Mangahao power may be expected to reach the Pity by June or thereabouts, the Evans i Bay station is to-day on the eve of producing power. The major portion of the plant is in readiness for■ operation" at full load, but a thousand details and tinings-up have to be attended to before serious current generation is commenced next month. A definite report on the all-over progress ■if the work as a whole from the General Manager of Power Stations, Mr. M. Cable, would certainly be appreciated by citizens. Aa a matter of fact, the great Metropolitan Vickers turbo-generator has been running steadily for a week, but the purpose of that preliminary running has been to "warm up" and to ensure that no suggestion of moisture remains in armatures or 'fields, the generator being short-circuited and running on a low voitage during the process. To-morrow the generator will be given its first serious work, the driving of motors and other electrical ■ devices which in turn operate certain essential elements of the complete, station plant. These elements are motors used in.connection with the moving furnace beds of the four great Babcock and Wilcox double-furnace boilers —two of the land and two of the marine type, the latter similar to Navy boiiers —motor hoists and the like, which, up till to-day, have been supplied with power from small auxiliary generators, standby machines in a standby station, j A POINT IN DOUBT. Wellington citizens are generally very much in doubt as to whether the Evans Bay station is to function as a standby proper or as a straight-out generating station. The decision must rest—so it seems to the average citizen—upon a comparison ot producing costs. Can production _ charges of the steam plant compare ■ with production charges at Mangahao? The question may be answered off-hand with great ease, but the same question , may place before experts a long and intricate calculation. Stejm plants, as is well known, can compete, and do compete with hydro-electric plants in the Unitei States, and one of the greatest coal fuel power stations in the States is actually within a mile ortwo of the Niagara Falls; yet so successful has been that station's comr.»ition with water-power plants nearby that its capacity has recently been very considerably increased. "PURCHASE IN BULK." Mangahao power will be sold to the city by the Government by the "bulk," that is, suppose Wellington's maximum demand reaches a point which may be expressed as 1000, then the Government will charge the city upon the 1000 basis for the full twenty-four hours over the period charged for, even though the peak load in fact, may occur during not more j than a couple of hours of the day. If ] the Evans Bay station is to function as a standby only and switches in when i the load commences, to climb towards its peak, say, at the 800 level, then the maximum demand upon the Government for current is kept down, and an 800 block is bought in place of a ICOO block. The arrangement between Government and council as to the price to be paid for block current is, apparently, not . yet finalised. (