IN REVIEW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4430, 26 May 1941, Page 5

IN REVIEW

ELECTRICAL PROGRESS. THE TE AWAMUTU BOARD. At the annual meeting of the Te Awamutu Power Board on Friday, the retiring chairman (Mr J. T. Johnson) who was subsequently re-elected, submitted the following report:— The year ended 31st March, 1941, has, notwithstanding war conditions, shown a considerable increase in new connections, the connected load having increased from 13,795,982 Kilo watts to 15,721,380 kilowatts being in increase of 13.96 per cent ovei the previous year. INCREASED CONNECTIONS. The number of connections to oui lines, exclusive of small heating appliances, electric irons, grillers radiators and radios, increased our connections by 623, as shown in the following statement:—

In addition to the above there were 486 extensions to existing installations. The Board’s maximum demand for the year was 23Q4 kilowatts, an increase of 172.8 kilowatts or 8.12 per cent. The diversity factor, which is the connected load of 15721.38 kilowatts divided by the maximum tjemand of 2304 kilowatts, was 6.82 as against 6.47 for the previous year. The units sold totalled 13,605,597, compared with 11,952,600 for the previous year, showing an increase of 1,652,997 being 13.83 per cent. The revenue from the sales of current alone amounts to £48,332 15s 7d as against £44,505 5s 9d for the previous year, an increase of £3,827 9s lOd or 8.59 per cent. The revenue from all sources for the year amounts to £48,916 3s sd. YEAR’S TRANSACTIONS. On the year’s transactions as disclosed by the “Income and Expenditure” and ‘‘Nett Revenue” Accounts, to be presented by the Manager at to-day’s meeting, the Nett Revenue Account shows the position as follows: Credit balance from income and expenditure account £19,679 12s lOd to which must be added rent of houses £126 6s 4d; interest on fixed deposits £3O 6s 3d, interest on financed installations £157 0s lOd, interest on investments £253 0s 9d, totalling £20,246 7s. As against the last mentioned figures there are:— Interest and loan redemptions £12,916 17s 2d, superannuation £132 2s Id, bad debts £l2l ss, depreciation and sinking funds £253 0s 9d, totalling £13,423 ss. This leaves a credit in the net revenue account for the year of £6,823 2s Od, .which amount added to the balance brought forward as shown in the previous year’s accounts of £4477 Ils 4d makes a total of £11,300 13s 4d, and this amount less £6l 10s 6d, being capital reserve for office equipment, leaves a balance of £11,239 2s lOd to be carried forward. The revenue front all sources per unit sold is .86 pence as against .91 pence last year. The operating cost per unit sold including all outgoings is .74 pence as against .79 pence last year. REVENUE GROWTH. The following table of five-yearly periods of revenue from the sales of current, and the growth of consumers, since tbe board commenced supply, is of interest:— Year. Amount. Consumers.

Early in the financial year the Board raised a loan of £lO,OOO, being the last instalment of the £30,000 Extension Loan, and in December last took authority by Special Order, for a further Extension Loan of £25,000. The following figures will give interesting information of some of the main items of work carried out during the year:—Route miles of lines erected: 11,000 volt, 6.274 miles; 3300 volt, .512 miles; low tension, 1.328 miles; total 8.114 miles. The route miles of distribution lines throughout the area total 362 miles and the actual miles of conductors in use total 2.616. Thirteen additional distribution transformer substations were installed and at the 31st March there were 294 such transformer substations connected to the lines with a total capacity of 5905 k.v.a. In addition to. the above there are eight 11000 volt to 3300 volt district substations with a total capacity of 1600 k.v.a. Poles erected during the year were: In construction, silver pine 94 and iron bark 307; in maintenance silver pine 44 and iron bark 357, making a total in all of 802: Total number of poles in use is 13910. SERVICE LINES. Number of service lines erected during year, 222. Good progress has been made with the overhauling of service lines. During the first six months 780 of these were overhauled. This work, apart from being necessary' under Public Works requirements, justified itself by decreased service-line troubles. As the second half of the year was taken up chiefly with construction work, with a much depleted staff, we were not able to carry out as much maintenance work on the main lines as we had wished. We have lost seven linesmen and have not been able to replace them owing to shortage throughout the Dominion caused by War enlistments. The route miles of lines replaced with heavier copper was 4.81 representing 17.48 miles of conductors. This is a small portion of the re-coppering required but this work will be done

as supplies of copper (deliveries of which are most uncertain) can be procured and labour is available. KAWHIA LINE. After repeated applications to the Local Government Loans Board we finally obtained consent to take a Loan Poll for £2BOOO for the reticulation of the Pirongia-Kawhia area. A poll was taken on sth September, 1940 and was carried with only 1 dissentient. The Local Government Loans Board then consented to us raising £4500 of the loan for the purpose of constructing the first section. On 19th March this section of 5.875 miles of Extra High Tension and .523 miles of Low Tension was constructed and livened up, and consumers are now being connected to same. The current for this new line is being temporarily supplied from the 11000 volt Kopua line. With our whole Empire engaged in a titanic struggle for its very existence, we cannot know nor forecast just what difficulties may have to be faced. An expected shortage of power to supply North Island needs during the coming winter presents some problems which supply authorities must endeavour to solve. This position is chiefly due to the miscarriage of material required, and inability to get fulfilment of contracts placed by the Public Works Department for extension of its hydro electric plans due to overseas war activities beyond their control. • HOUSING AND RESERVES. In my last two annual reports I have called attention to the problem of housing our employees, especially troublemen, and point out that we already had the necessary sections, which were at present a dormant asset. I suggested that we consider the feasability of building a unit at a time from our own resources. At the final meeting of the past Board this suggestion was endorsed by resolution, as appears in the minutes, recommending the incoming Board to consider ways and means of building housing units out of revenue. As shown earlier in this report, our financial position provides a pleasing surplus, and as we have reason to expect some measure of economic dislocation, if not in the immediate future, almost certainly in the transition stage from war condition to peace-time stabilisation, in my judgment, the Board should now consider the advisability of substantially adding to its general reserve. I also recommend adding to the reserve for office furnishing and equipment established last year, and in addition create a reserve for the purpose of starting a house-building programme. In concluding this report, I desire to take this opportunity to convey to my fellow members of the Board my very sincere appreciation of the cooperation and diligence you have at all time given to the Board’s affairs and your unfailing courtesy to myself as your chairman. In this appreciation I wish especially to include the three old members of last year who are not now members of this new Board. Also I know you would wish me on behalf of the Board to convey to the manager and his staff as a whole, in all departments, our appreciation of the co-operation, loyalty and efficient service each has rendered, which has made possible the success of the past year’s operations. To the Press and its representatives we convey our thanks for their faithful reporting and unvaried courtesy. COMMENTS BY MEMBERS. Mr J. G. Sutherland remarked that it was a most useful report and gave a clear outline of the Board’s position While they had a handsome surplus, it should be emphasised that it was largely due to goods which they could not secure from overseas, although badly required. For instance they could not get copper, the first ten tons for a long time only coming to hand within the last few days. The money would be wanted very much in the future and he endorsed the chairman’s ideas about adding to the reserves. He thanked the chairman for the report and congratulated him and the staff on the outcome. Colonel J. Matson said the report was a very informative one and he was pleased to see the recommendations about the reserves. Mr C. F. Storey said the most striking fact was the continued increase in revenue over the five-yearly periods. The Secretary-Manager (Mr D. McArthur) briefly returned thanks for the complimentary remarks made concerning the staff. After a general discussion, it was agreed to adopt the chairman’s recommendation about the reserves and to add £3OOO to the Reserve Account, £5OO to the office Equipment Account and £2OOO (equal to two units) to the Building Account, carrying the balance forward.

1940-41 1939-40 Bulk Supply 3 3 Dwellings 2235 2164 Businesses 292 294 Public Halls 29 29 Churches 19 18 Hotels 6 6 Schools 23 24 Street Lighting 5 5 Cowplant Motors 889 869 Separator Motors 494 445 Other Power Plants 1336 1165 Electric Stoves 904 759 Water Heaters 1420 1251 7655 7032

£ s d 1922 1,292 7 5 348 1927 21,313 3 1 1275 1932 29,518 32,188 11 9 1696 1937 5 4 2101 *1941 48,332 15 7 2701 *Year just closed—four years period.