ELECTRIC POWER

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 June 1937, Page 5

ELECTRIC POWER

OVERLOAD CAUSES STOPPAGES

! Although- not iso persistent, as yes--1 terday, there were again breaks in ' the electric power supply in Greymouth this morning, aggregating about twenty minutes. The cause of the stoppages is the overloading of the ' Kaimata power station, and in an interview this afternoon, Mr Sinclair Trotter, Engineer to the Grey Electric Power Board again appealed for the co-operation of users in keeping the demand for power down to the minimum. The breaks in the continuity of the supply are actually brought about by the power lionise staff, who are compelled to close it off when the demand rises, above the level that it is possible to supply. There is an automatic device that will shut off the power when the load becomes too. heavy, but in that event it would take about a quarter of an houj’ to set the plant in motion again, and in order to eliminate that, the power is shut off before the dead line is actually reached. Yesterday, the demand was the heaviest that has been experienced since the position became acute, due to the coldness of the day, and the greatest difficulty was- experienced in meeting it. The level of the Arnold river has been falling for the past week, thus reducing the head of water available for generating purposes. In normal times this would not be noticed, but under the present exceptional conditions, to qubte the proverb, it is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Mr Trotter said that it is hoped to have the little additional power from the Blackball Coal Company’s plant available in a fortnight, but even then there will he none available for new apparatus. It. will all be required to relieve the present strain. The delay in the raising of the height, of the dam has brought about the scute shortage, but even if the dam had been raised, it would have still been necessary to kep the demand down to the minimum.

It wiil be only on odd days that extreme measures will be necessary to keep the suply going, and all users will asist by economising in the use of their variorjs electrical appliances, especialy radiators and radio sets. In the latter connection, the Director of Station 3ZR has been requested by the Board to discontinue the day sessions, when the demand is at its peak. Cold weather makes a big difference in the heating load, and a cold spell would further complicate the In the Greymouth area, the load has gone up several hundred kilowats in the past year, which is a large rise even for a town of this size.

“It. is impossible lor us to tgll where it has all gone to,” said Mr Trotter. “If all the electrical appliances were sold through the Board we would have some chance of controlling it, but as it is, people buy radios, radiators, etc. from anywhere, and the load is thereby increased. We cou,ld' go round cutting off various appliances that we consider not to he essential, but we do not want to do that. Some people have been very good in economising on non-essential uses, but from others we have had no co-operation. Individually, it may seem small assitance, but collectively it, will help to relieve the peak load, particularly in the day time.”