ARAPUNI REPAIRS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 63, 26 February 1935, Page 6

ARAPUNI REPAIRS

Will Occupy Some Months COST ESTIMATED AT £5OOO No Shortage of Power Likely (By Telegraph —Press Association > AUCKLAND, Feb. 26. . “The department docs not look upon this as a major disaster and the cost ol repairs, about £5OOO, will be met from reserve funds,’’ said Mr F. T. M. Kissel, chief electrical engineer of the ; Public Works Department, when refer- ( ring to the recent fire at the Arapun* | hydro electric works. The repairs, he added, would take four to five months to complete. “The damage,” said Mr Kissel, “was caused by a short-circuit developing on the windings of the stator of No. 1 machine. Before the machine could be shut down this electrical fire developed into an ordinary lire, destroying a large proportion of the lower ends of the windings. “Provision is made in the design ot machines of this nature to cut off the current and to close the passages which admit and exhaust the air. In this particular case there was some delay in the functioning of the automatic gear controlling the gates, and the lire in consequence obtained a somewhat greater start than it should have doin’. Although the power was cut off and the doors closed within a very short, period, the big draught created while the machine was still rotating was sufficient tu draw the flames from the part immediately affected to other sections of the winding. “There have been several short circuits at the station during the past month due to lightning and to insulator defects and although we cannot trace the present failure to any one of these happenings in particular, there is no doubt that some sections uf the iustv'.lation may have been strained, thereby resulting in the gradual short circuit which caused the lire. “The department does not anticipate there will be any suQitage of power consequent upon this” continued Mi Kissel. “For some time Arapuui has had a machine in reserve. If necessary, power can be drawn from Waikurcmoana or King’s Wharf, although n is not likely that it will be required. ’ In conclusion, Mr Kissel said the department already had in stock some of the material necessary for the repairs, although it would have to import other material direct from the manufacturers’ factory in London.