MONTH REVIEWED

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XLVII, Issue 5959, 14 April 1947, Page 2

MONTH REVIEWED

ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY CONSUMPTION REDUCED POSITION STILL QUITE SERIOUS “The power position has deteriorated still further since the March board meeting, owing to the storage of water,” stated Mr N. G. McLeod, engineer to the Thames Valley Electric Power Board in his report to the j April meeting of the board. “Emergency cuts up to 50 per cent, were initiated by the State Hydro-electric j Department from March 1.1, but stabilisation of method was approached by the end of that week. “On the week ending March 23, th£ instruction was to reduce consumption to 10 per cent, below thd allocation, which,- up to that time was based on the previous highest consumption back to 1944 only. The board managed to reduce to 9i per! cent, below this allocation, which was quite a creditable effort. Had the allocation been based on the previous highest consumption back to 1943, the result of the board’s effort for the week would have been 13i per cent, below allocation. For the week ended March 30, the electricity controller demanded a reduction to 20 per cent, below allocation, but also notified that the allocation was to be based on the previous highest consumption back to 1943. For that particular week, the new allocation was about 25,000 units greater than the allocation v.'ould have been if based on highest consumption back to 1944 only. “But even with this, the position is still quite serious. The average weekly consumption for the four weeks ended March 9 was 1,318,500 units. The allowable consumption for the week ended March 30 was 994,470 units, which is a reduction 0f24.57 per cent, on previous consumption. “At the time of writing this report, the results of the board’s efforts for the week ended March 30 had not been obtained, but indications through the week were that the required savings were not being made, and further measures had to be taken. For the weeks ended March 16 and March 23 the board’s consumption was 12.05 per cent, and 17.06 per cent, respectively below the average of the previous four weeks.”

Effect of Power Cuts

“The week before special cuts were imposed the board’s consumption was 1,314,247 units. Cuts were imposed from March 11. Compared with the consumption for the week ended March 9, the position for the three subsequent weeks is as follows: In the week ended March 16, consumption was 1,168,724 units, a reduction of 145,523 units, over the week ended March 9, and also 11*1 per cent, of that week’s consumption. For the week ended March 23, 1 ; 093,608 units, 220,639, or 16.8 per cent, reduction; March 30, 1,038,229, 276,018 units, or 21.0 per cent, reduction.”