New Hydro-Electric Station Will Take Three Years

Northern Advocate, 17 November 1941, Page 6

New Hydro-Electric Station Will Take Three Years

I [Per Press Association—Copvright.l ; WELLINGTON, This Day. j The Minister for Public Works (Mr. ) Armstrong), announced today that i contracts had been let for the three | main generating units for the Karapiro I hydro-electric station on the Waikato i River, a few miles below Arapuni and near the Cambridge-Rotorua highway. The units will be the largest in New Zealand, both in the amount of power they will generate and their physical measurements. Each will be rated at 30,000 kilowatts and its turbine at 42,000 h.p. so that the capacity of the station will be 90,000 kilowatts or 126,000 h.p., which will bring the total installed capacity of the Government stations in the North Island up to 354,000 kilowatts. Materials Short The Public Works Department has commenced the construction of the dam and excavations for the powerhouse, which are expected to take a further three years to complete. The contracts cannot, under existing conditions, specify any exact dates for delivery, as everything must be subject to materials being available after the most urgent requirements for armaments and munitions are met. The contract for the manufacture of the three turbines has been let to Boving and Co., and for the generators to Metropolitan Figures, both of England. The contract figures are not announced, but it is understood they are over £300,000.