POWER CUTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27346, 23 March 1950, Page 6

POWER CUTS

Dunedin Position DECISION TOMORROW What power cuts will operate In the Dunedin area from next Monday will be decided at a meeting tomorrow of the Dunedin Electricity Advisory Committee. Christchurch has already announced its cuts, which include the prohibition of office radiators between 4 and 6 p.m., a switch-off of all street lights between midnight and 4 a.m., a ban on advertising signs except between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., the heating of the tepid baths to be reduced by one day a week, a ban on outside shop lighting except between 5 and 8.30 p.m. during the week and between 5 and 9 p.m. on Fridays. The Bowker fountain will not operate. A general request will be made to consumers to restrict the use of water heaters and radiators. The Mayor, Mr E. H. Andrews, will make a personal appeal for saving electricity. Power cuts have been called for by the South Island Power Advisory Committee, which met at Christchurch this week. It asked the supply authorities to confine their weekly quotas to last year’s figures. This action is necessary in the national interest because water storage for hydro-electricity purposes has fallen considerably during the recent dry months.

An average reduction of 12 per cent, on present electric power consumption in the South Island will be necessary to meet the request by the committee. There is a prospect of additional cuts if the storage position does not improve soon. Individual supply authorities are permitted to arrange their own systems of power saving in the meantime to see whether voluntary effort will secure the end desired. ■ The Prime Minister, Mr Holland, joined in the appeal for power saving in the South Island after hearing the situation reviewed by the general manager of the State Hydro-electric Department, Mr A. E. Davenport, when they had breakfast together in Christchurch on Tuesday. “The policy of the State Hydroelectric Department is one of cooperation rather than compulsion,” said Mr Holland before he left for Blenheim. “ The department wants consumers themselves to co-operate by voluntary power saving, for in this way the need for arbitrary cuts will be removed. I feel that if all play their part we can get through the winter satisfactorily.” The Government regretted the need for restrictions and was pushing on with the various generating and storage schemes. Mr Davenport conferred with the district engineer of the department, Mr W. H. Gregory, the assistant district engineer, Mf E: E. James, and the senior electrical engineer, Wellington, Mr C. W. Bearman, who acted as secretary. Other members of the committee are Messrs J. M. Bishop (South Canterbury Electric Power Board), J. S. Satterthwaite (Timaru City Council), J. C. Forsyth (Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department), N. G. Dunning (secretary, Power Supply Authorities’ Association), G. T. Edgar (Dunedin City Corporation), and L. W. Potter (Otago Electric Power Board). With minor exceptions, allocations this year would be the same as the actual unrestricted consumption for the year ended March 31, 1950, Mr Davenport said. If this condition was met, there should be adequate power, but he warned the committee that quotas were subject to revision at any time, depending on the storage position. South Island power consumption had increased by about 11 per cent, in each of the last two years, Mr Davenport said, compared with the 5 per cent, normal annual increase estimated to meet essential needs. “The only way in which the increased demand could have been met was by having the storage lakes full, with an adequate run-off in the watersheds,” he said. “ None of these conditions can be met and storage has already been depleted by 20,000,000 units. The run-off in the Waitaki and Harper catchment areas, feeding Waitaki and Coleridge, is only half the average flow for this time of the year.” The available storage was now much the same as at this time last year, but in 1949 it was rising. Now it was falling. Small rainfall and lack of snow on the hills had accounted for the present water shortage, Mr Davenport said. Melting snow maintained the run-off in the hills during the autumn; but its absence this year was sharply reflected in the light flow into the storage lakes.