VOLTAGE REDUCED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21964, 7 March 1946, Page 8

VOLTAGE REDUCED

POWER ECONOMIES CONSUMERS’ EFFORTS OBVIATING OVERLOAD Officers of the Poverty Bay ElectricPower Board yesterday awaited more information as to the North Island power crisis and the measures to be taken to meet the sudden increase in load occasioned by the wintry conditions prevailing over a large part of the island. The immediate requirements of the electricity controller call for a 250kilowatt reduction in load in this district, and this has been partly effected by reducing the voltage at which power is fed in.to the board's reticulation system. The remote control of waterheating circuits also has helped to bring about the desired immediate economies in power consumption. The board also has been given authority to refuse any special additional load offering, though this will not include new housing connections or essential installations for industrial and farming purposes. How far the electricity controller will proceed in outlining economies needed to meet the winter demands is not yet known, but the Poverty Bay board is already nearing the point a.t which it will be necessary to disconnect circuits from time to time. Essential Load Protected

Water-heating current, which is largely used in non-peak periods, is now subject to interruption, by use of .the board's remote-control switches, for four hours in each day. This interval can be extended if necessary, bu.t not without some damage .to the standing of electricity as a household amenity. The alternative to reducing .the heating period for water-containers below 20 hours per day is the rationing oi power through feeder lines, and the board is naturally anxious to avoid this measure.

An effort by every consumer in the district may effect such economies, on a voluntary basis, as will enable the board .to postpone indefinitely the arbitrary cutting-off of power. This effort the board has asked consumers to make, in the knowledge that if all districts give the utmost co-operation o the electricity controller i.t may be possible to tide over the present crisis without further mechanical breakdowns due to over-loading.

The critical position which developed on Monday, as a result of which power circuits in many North Island districts were arbitrarily disconnected for a time, was contributed to by the failure of a boiler at the Evans Bay station, at Wellington, where steam generation of electricity was in progress. This station is one of .the pillars of .the North Island system, as also is the King’s wharf steam station at Auckland. The island’s hydro-electric system was under a heavy load on Monday, the wintry weather having caused thousands of people to bring radiators into use for heating homes and offices; and the Evans Bay failure was coincidental with the burning-out of a generator at Arapuni. Between the .two mishaps, the system lost 25,000 kilowatts of production potential —and at the time the full potential was in demand.

In the Wellington area, consuinpion of electricity was cut by 50 per cent, under restrictions which probably were the most severe ye.t placed upon consumers there. Large industrial consumers were invited to co-operate with the Wellington power authority, and where co-operation was not forthcoming readily more abrupt invitations secured the desired reduction.in electricity consumption.

NO HOPE OF RELAXATION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 7. Unless there is an unexpected and material change for the better, no hope of any relaxation next week of the present restriction on the consumption of electric power is seen by the general manager of the Wellington City Council’s elecricity department, Mr L. B Hutton.

“We may even be a little worse off he said last night. “At the moment we are just struggling along.” . The reduction in voltage would inevitably cause some inconvenience in industry by slowing up processes, but there had been little complaint.