ELECTRICAL NORWAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17957, 8 December 1932, Page 9

ELECTRICAL NORWAY

NETWORK OF PLANTS PLENTY OF WATER POWER An interesting account of -hydro electric works in Scandinavia vacs given to a Wellington Post• reporter by Mr I. Tooins, M.1.C.E., M.1.M.E., who arrived by the Ruahine from London on his first visit to a British Dominion, after spending the best years of his life abroad engaged in civil engineering. Mr Tooins is a councillor for the borough of Deal, formerly one of tin' Cinque Ports, and reputed to be at or near the spot at which Julius Caesar landed in Britain. As a young man of 23, Mr Tooins went to Buenos Aires, where he was employed by tne Primitiva (las and Electricity Works for many years. Afterwards he was chief engineer for the city of Oslo, Norway, for 11 years, and subsequently became the principal director of one of the largest hydroelectric concerns in Norway. “Norway has gone whole-heartedly into hydro-electricity as a source of power,” said Mr Tooins, “and the whole country’s factories are driven' bv electricity. About. 20 years ago the Government granted concessions to private concerns, some of which were perpetual, but such concessions cannot be gained at the present time, and the cost of the undertaking must be recouped within about 20 years before the plant reverts to the Government.” FAVORED BY NATURE Norway was one of the best endowed countries in the world so far as natural resources for hydro-electric power was concerned, said Mr Tooms, and there was a network of power stations scattered throughout the country. Many of them were private undertakings, but municipal and Government stations had also been constructed. . It was intended to electrify all the country’s Government-owned railwavs. The hydro-electric schemes varied according to the nature of the water power available. In some instances a broad, but not very high, fall of water was used to drive the turbines, and in others a steep, narrow waterace was constructed. Owing to the solid rock of the country no trouble was experienced in regard to the foundations. In Norway it was customary to sell the current on the kilowatt-year principle, but there was now a tendency to introduce the meter system, which is usually used in New Zealand. Despite the competition it met from electricity, gas still held its own to a large extent owing to the price to be obtained for tbe by-products.