BIG ELECTRICITY SCHEME.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 September 1928, Page 9

BIG ELECTRICITY SCHEME.

POWER FOR SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND. (British Oflicial Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. -24. In connection with the electricity scheme for south-east -England, the Central Electricity Board has placed contracts amounting in all to about £1,000,000 for the construction of 132,-000-volt transmission lines in that area. The Central Electricity Board was established under last year’s Electricity Supply Act, and .the commissioners" thereon have assumed that the output iiW Great Britain will double every eight years, and that at the end of 1941 abo.ut 450 units >per head of -population will be consumed. The standard voltage for the grid -transmission which it is -proposed to establish has been fixed at 132,000 volts, and the secondary transmission lines ,will operate at 32,000 volts. The 'first scheme adopted iby the board covered an area .of 5000 square miles in Scotland, and included Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Dumbarton. Thq south-east. England /area,, for which contracts for transmission lines have now been placed, includes London and has a total area of 8828 square miles with a population -of 11,500,000. It is proposed' to reduce the number of generating stations from 135 to 28, and by a system of overhead lines to -convoy the current at the pressure stated. It is estimated that when the scheme is in full working -order the average cost of electricity, which now varies greatly in different localities, will be reduced to 1.25 d per -unit.