ELECTRIC POWER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16622, 13 April 1928, Page 7

ELECTRIC POWER.

WAIKAREMOANA SCHEME PROGRESS OF WORK POWER BOARD MEMBERS’ VISIT. (Herald Special Reporter.) TUAI, this day. Outstanding among the impressions gained to-day by members of the Poverty Bay Electric Power Board during their visit to the Waikaremoana hydro-electric development works was the remarkable economy rendered possible by the natural lie of the land. The Waikaremoana works have, none of the spectacular qualities of other schemes, notably that situated on the Waikato River, which, are dependent upon huge dams for the production of water power for the turbines. Every phase of the country seems designed by nature to assist the engineers in harnessing the power of the water escaping from the lake. First of all the Power Board members were shown how the lake waters, escaping partly through tho outlet, and tearing down tho hillside through a rocky bed, reach a terrace upon which is situated Lake Kaitawa, formerly a small gem of water of real beauty, but soon to be turned to commercial account. This lake will l be made the first storage reservoir, through which the waters from the\ outlet will bo directed by means of a tunnel into-a surge-chamber and a Jong steep pipe-line, and so to the powerhouse turbines 645 ft. below’ the level of Lake Kaitawa, at Tuai. HEADQUARTERS O'F SCHEME; ' It is at Tuai that the headquarters of the scheme are located, for here the most important technical work is being done in connection with the first phase of the development scheme. The water will pass through the turbine chamber of the power-house and so into a second reservoir, which will be formed by the simple process of blocking the lower end of the second terrace at Tuai with an earth wall. From this reservoir,, the water will be drawn off to serve the second phase of the scheme, which contemplates a tunnel of about a mile and a-half in length, and a further drop through a pipe-line of 36&ft., to another power-house on the banks of the Waikare-taheke River, into which the outlet waters will be eventually discharged after serving their power-produc-tion ends. , There is a third scheme, the details of which are not yet available, but which is understood to involve tho filling of cracks in the floor of Waikaremoana, near the Outlet, in order to capture the full power of the outflow. The seepages which engineers have traced are not individually great, but the volume of water that escapes through tho cracks would mean a substantial source of power if confined m one channel. NATURAL ADVANTAGES. It was to the physical characteristics of the, country and the progress of the works at present in hand that- the at-, tention of the Poverty Bay visitors was directed, however, and in the work at Kaitawa and at Tuai, and also in the pipe-line linking the two sites. They were shown hew, # merely by throwing up an earth wall around about a third or a circle, the height of Lake Kaitawa, and 1 therefore the storage Rapacity, could be greatly increased; how a projecting spur offered a natural barrier to tho water and an excellent location for the tunnel to the surge-cham-ber; how every detail of the great r scheme found assistance from the configuration of tho country. At the power-house site at Tuai, the Poverty Bay Power Bo air d {members viewed tho massive work in concrete, in which arc to bo lodged the turbines and other machinery, by means of which the electric power will be generated from the flow of water, and also the out-dcor sub-station from which the current will be directed to the north and south. Tho route of the power-line to Poverty Bay was indicated, and a vast amount of valuable information dispensed by the officers entrusted with the guiding of the visitors.

LINE TO GISBORNE GOVERNMENT LETS CONTRACT (Special to the Herald.) ' WELLINGTON, this day. ■ Another substantial cqntract in connection with Waikaremoana electric power development has . let, Mr. H. B. Walker having secured' the contract for the construction of the Wai-karomoana-Gisborne transmission line at a cost of £6102.