LONG NIGHT CUT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22612, 15 April 1948, Page 6

LONG NIGHT CUT

COUNTRY POWER

SWITCH ALTERNATIVE "NOT MAKING THE GRADE” “Country consumers are not yet giving the co-operation the board has asked for in the matter of switching off water-heater installations during daylight hours,” stated Mr. R. P- Baigent, manag-ing-secretary of the P.B. ElectricPower Board, today.

“We know by the consumption figures on country circuits there has been no general comnliance with the board's direction. If country consumers will not accent and administer what is in effect a request, the board will have no option but to establish a long night cut. on their circuits. This cut will affect the whole of their services, and not merely the water-heating installations.

He pointed out that town consumers whose water-heaters were on pilotcontrol were being given a 10-hour service daily, and had no option but to accept that service. It, was not fair to town consumers that any other group of electricity users should make unrestricted use of power for water-heating purposes. Compliance with the board’s request by country consumers was absolutely necessary' if the reduced quota .of power was to serve the whole district.

Savings on Cooking

“Domestic consumers are not making the savings on cooking that could be effected.” Mr. Baigent said. “Housewives could help to avoid the imposition of penal cuts if they would re-organise their use of electricity through cooking appliances to the extent of a meal or two a week. ©Some domestic users already had reorganised by making one cooking operation serve the purposes of more than one meal. ©Others had made no savings, for the reason that they simply transferred the normal cooking schedule to hours not affected by any cuts©A third group was actually using more power than before, having adoDted the practice of cooking earlier and then holding food in hot ovens pending the late arrival home of their husbands. Radiators were still using power, although there was a total ban on their use except in cases of invalidism. Radiators Used Despite Ban “The board,” said Mr. Baigent, “will take steps to check the unauthorised use of power in this way, and will take action where evidence justifies that course.

“Recent amendments of regulations give the deputy-controller for 1 lie district the right of entry to premises for inspection purposes, and while this authority would be invoked only with the greatest reluctance he felt that the community would support any steps taken to ensure the avoidance of penal cuts.

In respect of the extra hour’s cut on Sundays, it is pointed out to consumers that this will bring the total duration of service interruption on Sunday afternoons to an hour and a half-