POWER SUPPLY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 289, 10 November 1925, Page 3

POWER SUPPLY

BOROUGH COUNCIL AND BOARD

QUESTION OF DIVERSITY.

The question of an agreement between the Palmerston North Borough Council and the Manawatu-Oroua Power Board again came up for disA cussion at yesterday’s meeting of the latter body when a report presented by the engineer mentioned,- that the agreement had been held up pending a report. As the price to be paid for power supplied had been passed by resolution by both local bodies, and as the conditions of supply were governed by public works regulations, the necessity of an agreement seemed unwarranted, it was stated. 1 Passing on to the question of the operation of tho stand-by plant, the engineer said: —ln connection with the matter of the supply of power in case of emergency, I- think the Public Works Department should be in the question, as it seems .unreasonable for this board, or any other board, to have to arrange two sources of supply to ensure continuity. The district electrical engineer at Shannon has already discussed this matter informally with the borough electrical engineer and myself. With regard to supplying details of the demand to get at any diversity, this seems a peculiar request in view of the fact that the borough start up their plant three times a day to cut off peaks -and, in consequence, have a daily load factor of 52 per cent. Hence, diversity, if any, will be very small, and it appears to me that the borough are doing their best to see that we don’t get any either. Mr Eliott, who is also a member of tho Borough Council, asked whether tho board was prepared to reconsider the question of diversity, the chairman (Mr J. A. Nash) interjecting to point out that tho matter had been deleted from the agreement. Continuing, Mr Eliott asked whether the Borough Council could have access to the figures, but tho chairman expi'essed doubt on the p,oint. The chairman explained that the engineers of the two bodies and the Public Works Department were considering the position, while a letter which had arrived too late to he included in the precis of business ap- • appeared to determine the question. In any case, the outcome of tho conference of the engineers would have to be considered and the matter could come up later. Sir James Wilson asked whether tho board, had the power to retain the diversity, which he personally did not know much about, hut which seemed to resemble tho totalisator fractions and which every one was anxious to secure, the chairman replying in the affirmative.