LEVEL AT ARAPUNI

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22244, 13 January 1944, Page 2

LEVEL AT ARAPUNI

REGULATION EACH WEEK PARTS OF NEW UNIT ARRIVE The care taken by the Works Department to prevent the wastage of water at Arapuni was emphasised this morning by Mr A. C. A. Caldwell, District Electrical Engineer. He pointed out that any water going ever the top of the spillway v/as wasted and meant in the long nm that there would be a greater consumption of coal to make up the loss m power with the use of the King’s Wharf steam plant. Mr Caldwell explained that the layman could deduce nothing from the level of Arapuni Lake and the variations from time to time had no significance beyond the fact that they illustrated the way in which the de T partment regulated the level. The object was to have the lake as full as possible. When the industrial load was less during che week-end the tendency was for the lake to rise and create the danger of wastage The procedure, therefore, v/as for ihe level to be lowered each Friday to allow for the subsequent rise. Mr Caldwell mentioned that a start had been made with the construction of the No. 6 unit at Arapuni. Parts of the turbine had arrived, and while it could not be safely predicted when the unit would be ready for operation he thought it would be during 1944. The generator had not yet arrived Had it not been for the war and the difficulty in securing deliveries from overesas the unit would have been constructed some time ago.