CONTRACTS LET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1941, Page 4

CONTRACTS LET

FOR LARGE NEW POWER UNITS. SEVERAL YEARS NEEDED FOR COMPLETION. (By Telegraph— Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An announcement that contracts had been let for the three main generating units for the Karapiro hydro-electric station on the Waixato River, a few miles below Arapuni and near the Cambridge-Rotorua highway, was made yesterday by the Minister of Public Works, Mr Armstrong. These units will be the largest in New Zealand, both in the amount of power they will generate and in their physical measurements. Each will be rated at 30,000 kilowatts and its turbine at 42,000 horsepower, so that the capacity of the station will be 90,000 k.w., or 126,000 h.p. The contract for the manufacture and supply of the three turbines has been let to Boving and Co., Ltd., and the contract for the generators to Metropolitan Vickers, Ltd., both of England. The contract figures are not announced, but, taken together, it is understood they are more than £300,000.

Karapiro will be an important addition to the Dominion’s hydro-electric system, and will bring the total installed capacity of Government stations in the North Island up to 354,000 k.w. The Public Works Department Jias commenced the construction of the dam and excavations for the power-house, works which are expected to take three years more to complete. The contracts for the generating units cannot under existing conditions specify any exact dates for delivery, as everything must be subject to materials being available after the most urgent requirements for armaments and munitions are met.