ELECTRIC POWER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1937, Page 11

ELECTRIC POWER

DEMAND STILL GROWS

NEW GENERATING UNITS

Another indication of the steadilygrowing demand for electric power is given by .the recent letting of a contract for a third generating unit at the main Lake. Waikaremoana hydro-elec-tric power supply station. For a number of years past the Wellington district has taken its power from Arapuni, Waikaremoana, and Mangahao, a position which is not generally known. Actually Mangahao supplies about a quarter of the power required,, the other, two stations supplying the balance more or less equally between them. Even so the demand is right up to the supply, and it .is understood that closer attention is now being given to the lower development scheme at Waikaremoana,, which has been under contemplation for a considerable time. ,' The new unit to be installed at the main station will bring the output up to 48,000 kilowatts, and the lower development scheme, if carried out, will produce another 32,000 kilowatts. ■ •:■■•■'

Wide coverage is provided, by the Government's main inter-connected system in the Nor.th Island, and it will be increased if [the proposal to connect Waikaremoana ! and Arapuni through Edgecumbe is put into effect.. .Power is being supplied, to the North Auckland district from Arapuni, and practically the only parts of the North Island not receiving power are the huge central' area and what may be loosely termed the Urewera Country, in neither of which is supply required.

In the South Island the linking up of. the Government's stations at Lake Coleridge, Waitaki, and Monowai is proceeding, and to meet the very much increased demand for electric power on the West Coast due to mining activity, a transmission line is being carried from Lake Coleridge, via Arthur's Pass, to. a central point in the vicinity of Hokitika. From there . additional lines will be built to connect with various points when power becomes available. Recently the Acting Minister of Public Works (the Hon. P. C. Webb) announced that since the Southland district was brought into the South Island hydro-electric link-up the combined load on: the Waitaki-Coleridge system had grown at a rate which indicated that the demand would be up to full capacity, within two years. Accordingly, it had been decided to call tenders' for the installation of two 15,000----kilowatt generators at, Waitaki, the foundations for which were already in position. _________