THE OTAGO POWER BOARD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21244, 27 January 1931, Page 6

THE OTAGO POWER BOARD.

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —Your report of the Otago Power Board's meeting on the 20th inst is anything but reassuring, During the coming financial year ratepayers will feel the full effect of the board’s past administration. Everything points to this year’s deficit establishing yet another record, and ratepayers may just as well prepare themselves for a further increase in the rates. It can be taken as an axiom that the reticulation of a country district for lighting only is a highly unpayable proposition. The Otago Board has spent £290,000 on the reticulation of a large tract of country, yet of its 3740 consumers only 306 have installed electric ranges combined with water-heaters and 37 have installed electric ranges without water-heaters. This gives a general idea of the enormous expenditure the board has undertaken for lighting only. Is it any wonder that we are so heavily rated? It is almost incredible that such a tragic blunder should have been committed in canny Otago, more especially when the Southland results were then so widely known. But for the restraining influence- of the Loans Board, the Otago Board would have by now expended upwards of £90,000 on the reticulation of the ManiototoStratb Taieri district, and to-day those power lines would be high and dry without power. As a matter of fact the hundreds of pounds already spent in that district are simply so much money squandered. It is tragic to think what the Otago Board, left to its own resources, is capable of doing. The question is often asked. How can the power rate be removed from the land? The answer is: Increase the number of electric ranges and water-heaters and reduce expenditure. The Government could also assist by admitting duty free all British electrical appliances, and the board could cooperate with firms prepared to sell these goods at the lowest possible price. The board’s tariff for lighting, heating, and Cooking is quite reasonable, but the tariff for water-heating actually prevents the installation of electric ranges and waterheaters, and, if it is not altered, will, in these difficult times, force some consumers to revert to the use of the coal range. A coal range provides ample hot water at no extra cost, but by the, use of electricity, with, say, a 1000 watt element, hot water costs from £6 ISs to £lO per annum. Is it any wonder that sucn a small percentage (10 per cent.) of; the consumers has installed electric ranges. Every consumer who installs an electric range and guarantees, say, £2O per annum, should be provided with an adequate hotwater service at a cost of not more than £2 per annum, always provided the. load does not coincide with the peak load—a matter that can be quite easily arranged. , , , , In the near future the board will probably have to face keener competition than exists to-day. An eminent and worldfamous inventor has patented and tested a cooking range which, besides supplying ample hot water, will do the cooking for a family of from seven to nine persons at an annual cost of 22cwt. of anthracite or 25cwt. of coke. These results are achieved by insulation and by the scientific control of all heat generated, now being wasted. This range is fed only once every 24 hours, and stoked every 12. hours. ‘ In view of this information, is the board still prepared to advocate the reticulation of the sparsely-populated (li persons to square mile) ManiototoStrath Taieri districts at a total cost of £150,000 (£85,000 reticulation and £65,000 for 650 consumers’ installations and equipment), when those 650 consumers could probably each have installed one of these new ranges at a total cost of, say, £20,000? Unlike electric ranges, these new cookers cost practically nothing for maintenance, whilst their yearly cost for fuel would be about one-quarter the cost of electricity required for an electric range and water heater. It is to be hoped that, before it is too late, the board will amend its charges for water heating. After all it is the consumer who uses the power that should be encouraged, and in this instance this can and should be done by making the water heating charges attractive.—-! am, etc., R. S. Thompson. Wotherstones, January 26.