ELECTRIC POWER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23865, 20 July 1939, Page 9

ELECTRIC POWER

TWO NEW STATIONS EARLY BUILDING ANNOUNCED TEKAPO AND HIGHBANK (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, July 19. Within three or four months, the Lake Tekapo storage development and hydro-electric power scheme will be begun. Early in December, the first work in the building of another power station, at Highbank, will be carried out. This announcement was made by the Minister of Public Works (Mr R. Semple). The developments were being expedited, he said, to ensure an adequate supply of: electricity to meet the phenomenal demand in the South Island. Tests carried out at Lake Tekapo have proved highly satisfactory to the engineers. A test tunnel of 500 feet has been bored through the hill running back from the plantation, half a mile to the westward of Tekapo House, and is described by the engineers as having proved the ground excellent for tunnelling.

Construction of Tunnel

, The . tunnel, which will have a length of about one mile, will be 15 ’feet in diameter. The estimate of the Public Works Department is that thfe construction will take 12 months. When it is finished, the level of the lake will be lowered through it, leaving the river bed dry at the outlet from the lake for the building of the-dam, to be used fqr water conservation in the summer months. .‘ The water drawn off by the tunnel will be used to drive the turbines of a power station near the second bend Of the Tekapo River, ii The tender of Metropolitan Vickers, Ltd., for the supply of a generating unit for the Highbank statioh, a few miles from Methven, had been accepted, said the Minister. Delivery was expected to be made within* 12-months; Initial work on the building of the Highbank station is scheduled to bggin early in December. The first Job to he undertaken will be the building of an access road, over which the materials for the building the station and the heavy plant will be carried, ' '■ V*-’*• The generating unit will be-of 24,000 kilowatt capacity, the biggest unit in New Zealand. The Highbank Station f “It is essential that the Highbank station should be ready to take the plant as soon as it is delivered from England,' 1 ’ Mr Semple said. “As soon as the possibility of existing stations being unable to cope with the growth of demand became known, instructions were given to expedite the construction of the main race for irrigation, which will also provide the water for the Highbank station, and even at this stage it can be said with certainty that the station will be operating from May 1. 1941.” Because the limit of irrigation water demand Under the Rangitata diversion scheme is not expected to be reached for at least 10 years after its inception, Highbank will develop power in both summer and winter. In the winter-..months only, however, will a full load be develoned. -