POWER FOR THE CENTRAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3774, 13 July 1926, Page 7

POWER FOR THE CENTRAL.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEME WANTED. DEPUTATION TO PRIME MINISTER. Those who have the development of Otago at heart now recognise that electricity is the one factor above all others ■which will most materially assist in that development. The Otago Expansion League which has for some years past been advo eating a comprehensive hydro-electric power scheme to provide an adequate supply of energy throughout the province, has now decided to tahe a step which, it is to be hoped, will assist in-furthering the movement. • Mr S. B. Macdonald, president of the league, in speaking to a Daily Times reporter on July 7, stated that the time had come when the Government should be approached in this matter, and in view of the applications for power which were daily pouring in from Central Otago, be asked to define a policy regarding what it was prepared to do to assist the province by establishing a plant capable of generating the vast amount of power which will undoubtedly be required in the next few years. _ , The position in Central Otago particularly, stated Mr Macdonald, was becoming serious. Power was wanted badly throughout the district, and to this end it had now been decided to <*9ll a meeting of the representatives of the Central Otago, Otago, and Waitaki Power Boards, the Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers’ Association, and the Otago Expansion League to discuss some means by which those in authority could be made to recognise Otago’s needs. The want of power, Mr Macdonald maintained, was preventing the development of the province to no small extent. The fruit growers were crying out for. it as also were those working the mining areas around Lawrence and Blue Spur, and yet there was no power for them. Small plants, such as that at Teviot, which would when working at its peak, have a capacity of 1000 h.p., were all very well, but what was needed was one comprehensive scheme from which to reticulate the districts which needed the power so badly. Mr Macdonald, who has considerable experience of other power boards throughout the Dominion, said that Otago was particularly fortunate in its board, in that there was every possibility of its being able to operate without striking a rate, a state of affairs which, if it eventuated, would be unique in the experience of the Dominion. This, in his opinion, was due entirely to the businesslike methods carried out by the engineermanager (Mr A. P. Aldridge) ard his staff. MR ALDRIDGE’S OPINION 1 . Mr Aldridge, when approached, agreed with Mr Macdonald in his views regarding the pressing need for supplementing Otago’s supply of electrical energy. Mr Aldridge has just returned from Wellington, where he was a member of a deputation which approached the Prime Minister for the purpose of enlisting Government assistance in a comprehensive hydro-electric scheme for Otago. The Hawea-Wanaka Mr Aldridge said, was not looked on favourably by the Government. The power was there, but the cost of conveying it would be immense, and’by establishing the plant further south the sum saved would go .a long way towards the cost of the head works of it. The Roaring Meg proposal, however, had been practically agreed upon, a condition being that if it were brought into operation the Government should have the right to reserve such power as it might require for irrigation, and also the right to a further reservation if necessary. It was not likely, Mr Aldridge pointed out, that this right would be held to too strictly, but the Government wished to be sure that 1 the interests of the settlers, and their irrigation requirements were looked after. From Roaring Meg 2500 h.p. would be available, and at the rate applications were coming in this would quickly be absorbed. At the conference with the Prime Minister it had been suggested that power might be reticulated to Central Otago from Waipori or from Lake Monowai. Another proposal waa that the existing works of the Cromwell Development Company should be utilised. The Roaring Meg scheme, Mr Aldridge stated, would be preferable to any of these three, particularly in the case of the two first named. To take power from

Waipori to Cromwell, he pointed out, would cost at least four times more per horsepower than it would if it were taken from a station at Roaring Meg. Monowai. he considered, was out of the question. In view of the limited capacity of Waipori to handle the ever-increasing demand for continuous service, said the speaker, the necessity of the Hawea-Wanaka or some other large hydro-electric scheme was stressed by the deputation, and although the need was recognised by the department, it was doubtful whether anything would be done in the next four or five years. Questioned with reference to Mr J. B. Shacklock’s statement that the capacity of Waipori was 56,000 hor3e-power, Mr Aldridge pointed out that the available water flow from the Waipori watershed was equal to a simply of 10,000 kilowatts for 24 hours daily throughout the year, and that the ultimate economical development was merely a auestion of load factor. That is to say. with a load factor of 100 per cent., the development would be 10,000 kilowatts, with a factor of 50 per cent. 20,000 kilowatts, and so on. In any hvdro-electiic scheme relying on water storage capacity, it was explained, the relation between load factor and the maximum installed capacity was of great importance, a 3 each head of water drawn from the storage dam could only be replaced by natural, means, and when once used, was not available for other purposes. The establishment of any auxiliary plant at the dam could not be regarded as an economical increase to station capacity, excepting over periods when water was plentiful, because, as the level of the dam decreased, owing to the draw-off exceeding the run-off from the watershed, this naturally lessened 1 * the fall from the plant. It was clear, therefore, that the maximum development of Waipori was governed by the flow-off from the watershed and the nature of the load which the plant was called on to handle. With the increase of the application of electricity to domestic and industrial purposes which could naturally be expected in the next few years, an increased load factor could be expected, and, in view of this, Mr Aldridge contended that 25,000 horsepower was the ultimate economical developmnt of Waipori. “In addition,” he re marked. “I consider it not at all unlike!v that even this figure will not be reached unless some radical alterations in the Waipori scheme are undertaken.”