POWER SCHEMES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 18

POWER SCHEMES

DEPARTMENTAL ATTITUDE

BEPLY TO CBITIOISM.

An article published by the Napier "Daily Telegraph" comparing the costs of the Waikaremoana power scheme with those at Lake Coleridge and Mangahao has drawn an official reply. The departmental attitude is that a fundamental mistake was made in comparing Waikaremoana power plant with the existing plants at Lake Coleridge and Mangahao, as in. the case of Waikaremoana the estimated cost of the generating station only, has been compared with the total cost of the whole system, including generating station, transmission lines, sub-Btations, and a certain amount of distribution lines in the other two cases. The comparison of Mangahao with Lake Coleridge is also said to be misleading in that Ue cost of the Lake Coleridge development w given at 31st March, 1925, at which time the developed capacity was not 36,000 but 16,000 horse-power. A considerable increase in the total capital cost for Lake Coleridge will be required before the- horse-power mentioned is available. The capital figure stated, however, has, as in the case of Mangahao, included also the transmission lines, etc., which are not included in the estimated cost of Waikaremoana with which it is compared. So far as the comparison with Mangahao is concerned, it is stated that if Waikaremoana had been comiienced at the same time as Mangahao, the estimate for its construction would have been exceeded in exactly the same way as has tho estimated cost of Mangahao. While the Department does not tail to appreciate fully the value of Waikaremoana as a source of power, and .has made due provision for its development in the general scheme of power supply, it is. however, quite emphatically of the opinion that the present scheme, which includes Mangahao, is the right one to have adopted in_the general interests of the country. When Mangahao becomes overloaded Waikaremoana will be brought in to supply the additional amount of power required, and the Department is hopeful that Waikaremoana under these circumstances can be built up at a very much Jower cost than if it had been developed at a period of high prices during which the Mangahao development was installed. The districts more immediately adjacent to Waikaremoana have been so diifident in cofaing forward and guaranteeing to take power when developed, that this station must depend i very largely on the growth of load in districts further remote to make it'eommercially successful.