ELECTRIC POWER BOARD POLICY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20982, 10 March 1938, Page 8

ELECTRIC POWER BOARD POLICY

Unless the real purpose for which hydro-electric power boards are brought into being is taken into account in the discussion now surging round the chairman’s criticism of the Board’s engineer, an altogether wrong viewpoint might be accepted by the majority of members of the South Canterbury Electric Bower Board. The first and most important function of the administrative and controlling authority in relation to the distribution of hydro-electric energy for all purposes is not only to meet the imperative requirements of all consumers, but to encourage by a liberalised policy an increased demand for hydro electric services. In this district has been constructed one of the most extensive hydro-electric generating stations in New Zealand. At the moment, the Waitaki hydro-electric station is working at a mere fraction of its full generative capacity. The policy of the South Canterbury Electric Power Board should therefore be framed to encourage throughout the wide expanses of South Canterbury the increasing use of electrical energy for lighting, heating and power purposes. To do so, the members of the Board have placed upon them the task of evolving a policy that will achieve that end. The Board has not been constituted to earn substantial profits. The Hydro-electric Division of the Public Works Department has given a charter to the South Canterbury Electric Power Board to function along lines that will enable it, by embarking upon a progressive policy to render an important community service. In other words, the Board is charged with the duty of encouraging the community use of hydro-electric energy by the embarking upon a progressive policy. It is not the function of the Board to follow a policy that is designed to yield substantial profits. There may be proof of miscalculations either in estimating the revenue or in anticipating the effect of concessions to consumers, and there may have been unexpected turns in the trend of the Board’s business, but it is scarcely fair to suggest that because the Board's revenue has not measured up to estimates the people of South Canterbury will not be satisfied unless someone's head is delivered to them on a charger. The plain fact remains that the Board and its administrative officers are emerging from a period of difficult experimentation without having to face a deficit. To all appearances it would seem that although the revenue received by the Board for the sale of hydroelectric energy has not measured up to the estimate, the fact remains that the Board has functioned with such a measure of success that it has encouraged the increased use of electricity, it has supplied the requirements of its consumers at hours of the day when electrical supplies were needed, and it has paid its way over the period under discussion and lias still a small surplus in baud. It may be said by way of rejoinder that the Board should make a larger profit. Obviously in face of increasingly difficult circumstances and steadily rising administrative and distribution costs (which by the way are not peculiar to the operations of electric power boards), the only course open to the Board, if it seeks larger profits, is to seek more business or curtail the supply facilities for its wide range of consumers or increase selling rates. The members of the South Canterbury Electric Power Board may be disappointed that their estimated profit has not materialised, but against this trend which has somewhat disturbed the Board is the plain fact that the hydroelectricity needs of an extensive community has been met, the Board's finances are sound, and the whole district has reason to rejoice that the budget of the South Canterbury Electric Power Board has been drawn on sufficiently careful lines to obviate the Imposition of an electricity rate which has caused such heartburnings in less favoured power board districts.