NORTH SHORE WATER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 166, 4 October 1927, Page 9

NORTH SHORE WATER

DEVONPORT SCHEME NEW PUMPS INSTALLED A scheme launched ir. 1923 for the electrification of the Devonport borough pumping plant at Lake Takapuna has at last reached finality.

Tests are now being carried out on the new plant, which consists of two pumps directly connected to autosynchronous motors. It had originally been planned to have current supplied from the Devonport municipal electric power station, and a loan of £16,000 was raised to erect five miles of main-power transmission line and instal motors and pumps. Hitherto the water has been lifted to the reservoir on Mount Victoria by

steam-operated pumps, installed in 1912 to replace smaller pumps put in position in 1894, when the water scheme was first installed. The steam-driven plant, which is to be retained as a standby unit, had a. capacity of 24,000 gallons an hour. The two new pumps have each a capacity of 33,000 gallons an hour, and a very favourable rate for power supply has been obtained from the Waiteraata. Electric Power Board, which took Dver the Devonport municipal electric station. Either of the pumps can raise enough water to keep the reservoir full, operating at hours off those of the peak load. Alternatively, both pumps can be operated at night rates for power, thus effecting a saving in operation costs. Owing to the fact that Takapuna is supplied from the rising main to the Devonport reservoir, it is essential that one pump must be kept going in the daytime to maintain the water pressure on the higher levels in Takapuna. The tests will have been completed before the week-end. They were commenced on Saturday last, when a tem-

porary cross-connection joint opened, and a big volume of water was ejected under a pressure of 1201 b to the square inch. It is expected that a few minor faults will have been corrected, and that the plant will be in full working order in a day or two.