ELECTRIC POWER

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1937, Page 2

ELECTRIC POWER

WEST COAST SCHEME. PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION. Assuming that sufficient fiat land would be available, there is at least one very large potential source of power in the West Conrst Sounds area which might be considered in the future 'for the establishment of electrochemical industries. In discussing the outlook for the profitable utilisation of large amounts of cheap surplus power in New Zealand, Mr S. H. Wilson, of the Dominion Laboratory, drew attention to the proposal to make a tunnel from Lake Manapouri to Deep Cove, thus making available 250,000 horsepower that could be used for electrochemical industries'. Possible electro-chemical industries which might be established, he said, were the production of aluminium, ferro-alloys, electric pig iron, calcium carbide, and phosphoric fertilisers. Some of these industries. however, were ruled out for a long time to come by present world over-production or by the existing efficiency, as well as the case with phosphoric fertilisers, of the industry already in hand in New Zealand,

For those for which there were some present prospects, the possibilities would depend on the cost of the power the industry actually used. The cost of hydro-electric power was conditioned mainly by capital cost and it was claimed for the Manapouri-Deep Cove scheme that the capital cost per horsepower would be very low. Taking the power to lie developed initially as 125,000 horse-power, with the capital cost at £ls per horse-power, the installation cost of the scheme would bo £1,875,000, with an additional £146,200 for interest and depreciation.

The power would be relatively cheap, however, only if all available was continuously used, and the difficulties confronting the scheme through present production in other countries seemed to show that- the only prospects were for ferro-alloys, carbide and cyatiamide, and phosphoric acid for fertilisers, and these appeared to offer the best prospects for using any cheap power that should be made available hi the Sounds region. The difficulty vith any scheme there involving the development df a large amount ot power would be to start with sufficient production in order to use most of the power and so keep unit costs small, and production on this scale involved marketing difficulties which would react on nationalistic policy.