LAKE COLERIDGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 April 1922, Page 3

LAKE COLERIDGE

PROG REISS LE AGUE’S HER< >RT. (Special to the Star.) CHRISTCHURCH, Apul 5. ‘‘The output from the Lake Coleridge power station at present is nominally 6000 k.w. on the plant, ’ said the organiser to the Canterbury liogress League to-day, in a report supplied to tne quarterly meeting. “but, actually the plant has been carry mg an overload of 2.5 per cent, during certain periods of the day, and indeed the peak load has been known to actually exceed 8000 k.w’s. 1 mention this in passim' so that the public may undeistand 'that this great undertaking nas not been carried on without difficultiesThe development of the plant is pioceeding according to schedule. '1 he new casing for the fifth unit is now in position, and the unit is at present undergoing the necessary tests. If these are satisfactory, and there is every reason to suppose they will be, the unit should be in full operation in the course of a few days. It should be observed that the original power units have been running continuously for seven years, and the power house staff is waiting very anxiously for seine relief, so that the old portion of the plant can undergo an overhaul. However there is every prospect oi the immediate demand tor power being satisfied shortly. Ihe sixth unit should arrive during the next, month or two, and will be installed during the winter. Meanwhile the fourth pipe line is nearing completion, over 1700 feet of line having been riveted up into position, leaving only about 270 feet to complete. This work should be finished in about tlnce months’ time. By the spring the cap.icitv of the power house and the plant then in operation will ho 12,000 k.w .-, thus completing the present StationSurveys have been made in connection with the duplication of the whole scheme, including a power house, pipe lines and tunnel. Tower from Lake, Coleridge is supplied by the Public Works Department direct to fourteen local bodies, two power boards and some forty institutions and private consumers. The policy of the. Progress League is : (1) Steadily and consistently to urge an increased supply at Lake Coleridge by (a) additions and extensions to plant, (b) establishment of a second power station, and (c) permanent diversion of the Harpei River info the lake; (2) to urge tlm extension of the Government s primary feeders into the principal centre:; throughout the province ; (3) to assist and offer practical advice to local bodies concerning the establishment of power districts and the setting up of boards to control same; (4)*the dissemination of knowledge on the subject of electricity generally.