POWER-HOUSE PROBLEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13896, 20 January 1916, Page 6

POWER-HOUSE PROBLEMS.

i . • —^ — _, That the Gisborne Borough. Council | is not alone m its power-house prob--1 leras, is borne out by a. report that appears m the Napier Telegraph, declar- ( nig that the demand for electrical cur- : rent has grown, at such a rapid pace r lately that the plant at the Muunicipal i power-house is so over-loaded as to I seriously threaten a breakdown that I may put the trams and the electrical lighting system, out of commission. Some little time ago, the Napier City Council was asked by its officers, to take immediate steps to provide extra power at the station and a Diesel engine has been ordered. ' That unit, however, cannot relieve the position with any 'marked success owing to the exceedingly heavy demands. • To give an idea of how the plant is situated it is stated that last {Saturday the staff were compelled to so overwork their plant as to make 1045 horse-power from, the 645 guaranteed' capacity of the engines. i Even with the new (second-hand) Diesel engine (150 h.-p.) the plant will be grievously overloaded. ■ In. addition to the position as already explained lias to be added the everpresent risk of one, or more^ of the three damaged engines breaking down. Each, of tlio three have cylinders cracked, and although: experts state, that the engines may continue working for some time they may break down at any-mo-.ment, ajid the town thrust into darkness, and the trams stopped. Questioned on the subject to-day Air Buswell, electrical engineer, said the position at Napier was apparently more ( aouto than at Gisborne. The Napier power-house was equipped wtih a pro'duoer gas plant, and the" Diesel engine I now being installed had been purchased from Mu'amar. The Napier installation had a much greater over-load capacity than Gisborne, where they were limited to a 5 per cent, over-load, but Napier's j difficulty was accentuated by the tramway load, which was oxceedingly heavy m rush hours, particularly about 5 o'clock m the winter months. Gisborne was much more fortunate m this respecV with the Edison battery oar system, the. load coming on at night when the rush was over. Asked as to the position respecting the present plant, he said one of the units had been out of action, but new parts having 'been obtained it. should shortly be ready for work again. , . A requisition for a fourth unit for the local power-house, it should be explained, .was put m just a. year. ago, and now that the authority has been issued by the Government for the raising of the £10,000 electric light loan, this will enable the Council to proceed with the installation of the new unit and proposed storage battery. That no unnecessary time should be lost is' demonstrated by the fact that nearly 18 months elapsed m obtaining the last jUnit from the makers m England under peace conditionsj and doubtless an even longer period^ will elapse on account of i the war. It i s evident that if the additional unit is to bo available for the 1 winter load next year it is essential ;that tho order should be placed at an ! early date. On the question of the capacity of the present plant it was as-cei-tained from Mr Buswell that the present biggest "peak" load is only got , over by cutting off the street lighting, I and whilst they would be able no doubt |to pet 'through the coming winter it would occasion great anxiety,