THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. SATURDAY MARCH 15, 1947. The Case For Stand-by Plants

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1947, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. SATURDAY MARCH 15, 1947. The Case For Stand-by Plants

The desperate shortage of electricpower in the North Island at the present time has awakened people to a realisation of the extent to which they are dependent upon electricity.

It has also brought them hard up against the fact that electricity supply is dependent in the first place upon the availability of water power, and secondly upon the availability of coal. There may. and probably will, come a day when atomic energy will provide all the electric power requirements for industrial and domestic purposes.

That day, however, is not yet, and it would seem to be wise procedure for the industrialist and the housekeeper to instal standby sources iff heat and power wherever possible. This comment has application to the State Electricity Department no less than the humble manufacturer or farmer who, once possessing excellent providers of hot water, for instance, or power to drive machinery, scrapped them in favour of the white coal product.

Probably oil engines and water heaters arc still to be found on many farms and in industrial plants, blit, speaking generally, they have been

regarded as excrescences lo be removed from sight. Though (he present shortage of electricity will, it is to be hoped, be of comparatively short duration, it has served to stress the need for stand-by sources of heat and power, which should be regarded in the light of insurance against holdups, inconvenience and actual financial loss.

Today the farmer, for instance, who has retained his internal combustion engine and bis oil burning water heater need not worry about electric power restrictions as must his neighbour who lacks stand-by equipment. The lack of stand-by generating plants of substantial dimensions ’s greatly handicapping state electricity executives today, and embarrassing all sections of the community. The state authorities, of course, cannot rid themselves of responsibility for the community's embarrassment. Though it is held that the eventual harnessing of all sources of water power will ensure continuous supply of electricity, it should never be forgotten that accidents are apt to happen in even the best-regulated families, thus strengthening the contention that a man is unwise to keep all his eggs in one basket.