CITY’S ELECTRICITY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 124, 24 April 1940, Page 5

CITY’S ELECTRICITY.

YEAR IN REVIEW. Reporting to a meeting of the City Council, on Monday, the city electrical engineer (Mr J. W. Muir) gave a review of the year’s operations of lus department, stating that the average cost of power per lc.v.a. had been reduced from £8.96 in 1938-1939 to £3.00 in 1939-1940. ~ 'file report proceeded; “The value ol liio power bought from the ManawatuOroua Power Board in the year ending March 31, 1940, was £36,182 as against £30,239 the previous year, theJ increase in tho average k.v.a. bought being approximately 20 per cent. The total cost of tho power handled was £36,072 a* against £30,162. an increase of £5910. The foregoing figures take into consideration the payment made by the Public Works Department to tiie council on account of the power plant being retained as a standby plant. “Tho power plant was run at the request of tho Public Works Department on three occasions during the year. It was also brought into use on several other occasions when it was found necessary, by either the Power Board or ourselves, to do work on the bulk supply feeders or switchgear. Such use of the plant obviated what otherwise would have been an interruption in the supply to the department’s consumers. “The number of new consumers connected during the year was 255, as against 183 the previous year. The number of new electric ranges connected to the mains during the year was 230, as against 175 the previous year, an increase of 31 per cent, on the previous year’s figure which, considering the fact that, due to the import restrictions, electric ranges _ were almost unobtainable at one period of the year, is quite a satisfactory result.”