POWER OUTLOOK BETTER NOW IN SOUTH ISLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22887, 5 March 1949, Page 8

POWER OUTLOOK BETTER NOW IN SOUTH ISLAND

d>.A.) DUNEDIN, Mar. 4. The South Island should again experience only light elecitric power cuts this winter.

Heavy rain and melted'snow in the main catchment area which serves the Waitaki station have brought the storage throughout the island almost to its maximum. Last week the rate of flow over the Waitaki dam was assessed at 40,000 cusecs which is far above the year s average of between 10,000 and 15,000 cusecs. Waitaki thus has been able to reduce the power load borne by other South Island stations, allowing Lakes Coleridge and Monowai to fill to capacities. At Waipori, the Dunedin City Corporation’s power station, a rise of 2ft. Gin. in the level of the Mahinerangi dam will bring the storage to 100,000 acre feet, exactly double the capacity possible before the dam was raised three years ago. A note of caution was sounded by the district engineer of the State HydroElectric Department in Christchurch, Mr. W. H. Gregory He said that although the storage was now practically at its maximum this was to some extent counter-balanced by the increased demand for power. Yesterday, for instance, 25,000 kilowatts more electricity were used than on the same date last year.