POWER SUPPLY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 14

POWER SUPPLY

SOUTH ISLAND NEEDS NEW RAKAIA STATION USE OF IRRIGATION RACE 1 [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] CHRISTCHTJRCH, Friday Much importance is attached by th 4 Public Works Department to the plan to erect a hydro-electric generating plant on the Rakaia River at the outlet of the Rangitata River irrigation diversion race. A site has now been selected for a power-house where the race will fall into the Rakaia, River, and because of the urgent need for new generating units tho plan will be pushed on with all speed. The site has been selected for this new electric power station, which will have an output nearly as great as that at Lake Coleridge. Because it will he much more modern the new station will be smaller than Lake Coleridge. It will have a generating capacity of 30,000 horse-power and is expected to provide a very useful augmentation of the supply on tho South Island system. Only the winter flow of tho race will be utilised, so that tho water coming 41 miles from tho Rangitata will serve the dual purpose of irrigating Mid-Can-terbury in hot, dry seasons, and the generation of power for the whole of the province in the winter, at a time when the demand on the power supply in the South Island is heaviest. It is claimed that this plan will alone make the Rangitata diversion scheme more than payable economically. At the present the construction of the huge race, which will carry nearly 100 times more water than the Avon River, is being accelerated. According to the last Public Works Statement issued by the Minister of Public "Works, the Hon. R. Semplc, the I ace is scheduled for completion by tho spring of 1940, so that in all probability the power plant will be generating by 1941.