THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 26. 1926. GREAT BRITAIN AND ELECTRICAL POWER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19799, 26 May 1926, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 26. 1926. GREAT BRITAIN AND ELECTRICAL POWER.

Speaking before the New Zealand Association of British Manufacturers’ Agents last week the British Trade Commissioner for the Dominion emphasised the point that Great Britain leads the world to-day in the export of electrical machinery. It is almost curious that this should be the case in view of the fact that in the use of electricity to meet the requirements of industry Great Britain is by no means in the forefront. In the course of the recent debate in the House of Commons on the second reading of the Electricity Supply Bill, the AttorneyGeneral } replying to criticism of the Government’s proposals prior to a division which resulted in a majority of 198 in favour thereof, laid stress on the point that the Weir Report showed that the cost of electricity to the people of Great Britain was over twopence a unit for the whole average, whereas the proper cost to the consumer ought not to be more than a penny. It has been urged that in whittling down the effective clauses of the 1919 measure, and depriving the Electricity Commissioners of essential compulsory powers, a dangerous handicap was imposed on British industry. If Mr Lloyd George is in the right of it “six vital years of progress on a national scale” have been already lost. The Minister of Transport has quoted figures showing that as against 118 electrical units per head consumed in Great Britain 200 are consumed in France and Germany, 230 in Belgium, 50Q in Sweden, Norway, and the United States. Great Britain stands at the foot of the list of manufacturing communities in respect of the consumption of electrical units per head of population. The country which of all countries depends most on the successful use of the best machinery has made the least progress, that is to say, in the use of that kind of power which, it is urged, will soon dominate industry. The House of Commons as a whole has clearly reached the conclusion that something should be done, and that the means of doing it find embodiment in the Electricity Supply Bill. Tins measure represents a considered policy for the organisation * of a national power supply at a rate far lower than is attainable at present. The taking of the whole country as a single area of supply should much increase the possibility of cheapness. The standardisation of the methods of production and the linking together of the most efficient sources of supply are, it is represented, well within the capacity of modern engineering. Coordination, the keynote of electrical reform, is considered practicable given the necessary powers of control, and it is these that the Government proposes should be conferred on a Central Electricity Board to be set up ■ for the purpose. Much of the criticism directed »t the Bill has ' had relation to the constitution of this board. The board has been attacked on the ground that its creation stands for the refusal to nationalise the industry, and also on the ground that its creation amounts to nationalising the industry. It has been urged that its powers of control would threaten public and private electrical undertakings with unbearable interference, and it has also been contended that its powers are utterly insufficient, and that the whole scheme is unworkable on that ground alone. But nobody has apparently adduced any effective argument to show that the measure is not in the national interests, or been able to demonstrate how control could be dispensed with, and that reform m the technical equipment of the nation which is considered necessary to its industrial life still be brought about. It may bo recalled that the recommendations of the Weir Committee were drawn up on the basis that after fifteen years’ time the electrical consumption of Great Britain will have more than quadrupled. It has been estimated that the annual saving resulting under the scheme, when the consumption has reached five hundred units per head and the price per unit ha.s been reduced from its presuit high figure, will he about £Ol-5,000,000. As regards the financial aspect of tho proposals, the committee’s opinion was that tho technical scheme would involve during the next fifteen years new money to the extent of upwards of £‘250,000,000, half of which would be required for distribution purposes. The key of the new scheme lies in an element new to British electrical industry—complete inter-connection of generating stations. “The advantages,” stated the committee, “will have reactions favourable in nature though varying in degree on all existing undertakings. In a word, all will benefit by the creation and use of something which no one of them could create individually. At the present time there exists no authority with powers to construct and operate a transmission system on the scale contemplated. Further, it j will involve heavy capital expenditure, and, therefore, presents a financial problem unlikely to bo solved without | some measure of State assistance or 1

guarantee. These two considerations point to the conclusion that the generation of high tension energy must be regarded in an entirely new light. It must be recognised that a beneficial mechanism created by the help of the State must be operated so as to secure the best results for all, and the realised economies must inure in the main to the consumer.”