CITY ELECTRICAL SUPPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14144, 20 August 1909, Page 8

CITY ELECTRICAL SUPPLY.

WATER OR STEAM POWER?

With reference to the question of water power for electricity, Mr. I. von Edoskuty, who suggested water power through our columns recently, writes in reply to criticisms on his previous letter as follows:—

Mr. "Wyllie, city electrical engineer, was good enough to inform your representative that my proposal was > "absolutely impossible," and if mere assertion could settle the matter this statement would seem to dispose of it once and for all. I would like, however, to suggest that the argument for water power ie much too strong to be brushed aside by simply assorting it to be " absolutely impossible." Mr. Wyllie refers to two "natural mistakes" which people might easily fall into— one "for anyone on seeing a waterfall tc think an electric station could be driver by it," and the second " that water powe; cost nothing." _ _

I would not like to say that the first is a nistake. Any engineer seeing a large fall )f water not utilised would naturally suprose that power could be procured from it, md it is not natural that he should be mistaken. When I said in my former letter :hat water power cost nothing, I simply neant that it cost nothing to produce, cornDared with steam-power, which costs the price of fuel to < produce. In addition to ;ho cost, of producing the power, there is, )f course, the cost of harnessing it and of lpkcep of machinery in both cases. But ho greatest argument for water power is bat, once harnessed, the energy costs lothing, whereas with steam there is a :onstant and enormous outlay for fuel. So hat, so far as theory is concerned, I iimnly repeat, what Mr. Wyllie considers ho natural mistakes of ignorant people, ;hafc where I see enormous water powers Soing to waste, as they are in Auckland province, this power could bo utilised for jlectrical supply, and 1 assume the water K)wer would cost nothing unless the Government charged the local bodies a royalty 'or the privilege of utilising it. So far as Dunedin is concerned, I know nothing about the system there, but I am not in < the least surprised to learn that they lost money the first year. But did steam power, pay in Auckland in its first year? And if it paid the Council, did' it pay the consumers? Unless one has full data of what the cost and charge's are in Dunedin aVid Auckland these comparisons are useless. Supposing the Dunedin Council had gone to the expenso of harnessing 10,000 h.p. and only 2000 was' used the first year, would anyone expect to see a profit, and the fact that Dunedin is making a small profit this its second year shows that it has not done so badly. I know nothing of the supply for the city of Worcester, but. I know that in many of the Swiss schemes a steam engine is kept in reserve, owing to the water, supply being unreliable, and not, as Mr. Wyllie imagines unlimited. '

I have studied, at first hand, some *>f the most notable undertakings on the Continent of Europe for producing electricity by water power, and the tendency theVe is to go to enormous "expense and trouble to secure water power, sooner than depend on the apparently cheaper steam power. So far as Auckland is concerned, I have \goi* ...carefully into the reports of Mr. Hancock, the -American export, and tho late Mr. T. S. Hav. superintendent engineer of tho Public Works Department, both of whoso opinions are sufficiently qualified to guarantee/ their reliability. The Wairua Falls arc less than 100 miles from Auckland. Mr. Hay says the minimum flow >is 1?0 cubic feet per second. Mr. Hancock states that 150 ft head of water can be produced without a dam, and 180 ft with one. From these figures it. is obvious that from 3000 to 3600 h.p. is available there, and, so far as I can learn, there aro no engineering difficulties in either harnessing it or bringing tho current to Auckland. At the Aratiatia Rapids, 150 miles from. Auckland, Mr. Hancock estimates there- is 56,300 h.p. in a fall of 110 ft, easily adapted for utilisation, and this ought to be sufficient to satisfy the needs of Auckland for many years to come, > But -both these engineers aurrea that along the course of tho Waikato River there is enormous power at present going to waste. ' Since the report above referred to was published in 1904 progress in transmitting electricity has been very rapid, and if it.ja going to pay Johannesburg to bring electrical power from the Victoria Falls, nearly 1000 miles away, -surely it is not too much 'to/suggest that the city councillors-consider the advisability of utilising the enormous energy provided by Nature within easy reach of Auckland.

* The advantages Of cheap power and light are iso many that, the City Council might well pause before committing itsolf to tho expenditure of £130,000 on steam power, which necessarily, precludes all possibilities of cheapness. ■'. .'.-*'*'•■■' ■ ;""■■;"