POWER SITUATION

Putaruru Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1232, 29 May 1947, Page 6

POWER SITUATION

THAMES VALLEY MANAGER’S STATEMENT Heavy Loss To Board In this Issue we publish a new schedule of power shutdowns throughout the district. The manager for the Thames Valiev Electric Power Board, Mr. • RSprague, in a statement on behalf of the board states : it would appear to be imperative that the public in general be enlightened upon the necessity for the conservation in power from the power board's point of view. This contingency has been brought about by the necessity to comply with the Electricity Control Order, 1945, Amendment No- 2, Serial No. 1947/38, dated the 20th of March, 1947, and issued by the Electricity Controller, Mr. F. T. M. Kissel. The salient features of the order read as follow : “ Pursuant to the Supply Control Emergency Regulations 1939 and the Electricity Emergency Regulations 1939 the Electricity Controller doth hereby order and direct as follows: Clause (3) (1) : Each supply authority shall forthwith take such .action as it thinks fit for the purpose of reducing its weekly unit consumption of electricity to an amount not exceeding four-fifths of the amount of units per week for the time being allocated to it by' the Electricity Controller: Provided that the supply authority shall do such things as it deems necessary to ensure that sufficient electricity is supplied for hospitals, for cool stores and freezing works, for dairy factories, for railway signals and for farming purposes (not being electricity for dwelling house purposes only)-”

An Embarrassing Problem Now this was a bald admission on behalf of the State Hydro-electric Department that their generating plant was incapable of catering for the electrical energy load offering to the extent of 20 per cent., and the buck was passed to the individual supply authority to make the best of what was left. Each and every supply authority was thrown upon its own devices for dealing with the situation and had they not done so the industry would have been in a state of chaos. The position as it affected- this board is simply explained- The allocation for the time being to the board in round figures from the date of the order mentioned was 1,250,000 units per week. To obey the order means that 250,000 units of electrical energy per week must be cut off and our consumption reduced to a figure close to 1,000,000 units per week, varying in quantity as much as 50,000 units per week. The board has been set a huge and very embarrassing problem. In spite of heavy cuts it has not succeeded once in getting within 48,000 units per week of the requirements of the order. The board’s performance to date over the period of the last seven weeks is expressed in the following results : For the weeks ended : 6th April, 48,000 units; 13th April, 57,000 ; 20th April, 72,000; 27th April, 06,000 ; 4th May, 66,000; 11th May, 71,000; 18th May, 52,000; all being in excess of the restricted allocation. Restrictions Altered A close study of the terms of the clause of the order as outlined shows that the board, had no option l>ut to give supply to the dairy industry, of which there is considerable dimension in this territory, and in order to do this, other industries and interests had necessarily to bo sacrificed. Now that the dairy industry has waned appreciably the power resrictions have been altered to give the balance of industry a share of the available energy until the new season commences. It i 3 hoped that as the winter draws to a close and the cities become eased i:i their demands towards September of this year, that there will be a respite in the restrictions. However, on .the admission of the State Hydro Department itself, there will be no freedom from restrictions until the major scheme at Maraetai comes into operation. In conclusion, the application of power cuts is most distasteful to the board and it abhors the necessity for them, and, further, they incur a heavy daily loss of revenue apart from the consumer’s goodwill.