D.—l.

APPENDIX D.

ANNUAL EEPOKT OF THE CHIEF ELECTRICAL ENGINEER.

The Chief Electrical Engineer to the Hon. Minister of Public Works. Sir, —I beg to report on the position of the development of electric power in the Dominion for the past year as follows : — GOVERNMENT SCHEMES IN OPERATION. ARAPUNI-HORAHORA ELECTRIC - POWER SUPPLY. 1. Capital Outlay. The total capital outlay at the end of the year, as shown in Table II herewith, was £4,640,941, an increase during the year of £144,854. The principal items of increase were £57,605 at Arapuni, £51,794 on construction of the Arapuni-Stratford line, and £12,627 on construction of the new 110 kv. substation at Hamilton. Table I shows assets in operation at the end of the year as totalling £4,522,152, and assets not in operation £158,332. The latter total includes £87,837 expenditure on the Arapuni-Stratford line, and other amounts on the new gates at Arapuni, Hamilton 110 kv. substation, and stocks in hand, principally for these new works. 2. Financial Results of Operation. The gross profit for the year— i.e., total revenue, £337,641 less working-expenses, £47,740 —was £289,901, equal to 6-62 per cent, of the average total of assets in operation during the year. The loss for the year, after making provision for interest and depreciation, was £41,487. Capital charges include an item of £36,590 as a payment of part of the capital charges of King's Wharf station, so that on the working of the Department's system alone the loss for the year was less than £5,000, or about per cent, of the capital outlay. The results of operation for the past four years are shown in Table I herewith, and show the following points : — Increase in gross revenue from £161,884 to £337,641 for the past year. £171,747 of this increase is in the revenue from the Auckland Power Board, which was supplied from Arapuni for all but fifteen days of the year, and took practically no supply from the Department in the previous year. All other electric supply authorities, except Thames Valley Power Board, show increases. Increase in capital charges from £87,435 to £333,737, due to the fact that this year's accounts include interest and depreciation on the capital cost of Arapuni, and half the capital charges on King's Wharf steam plant, for almost a full year. Reduction in working-expenses, analysed in Table 111, from £115,003 to £47,740. This is wholly accounted for by reductions of £25,566 in the cost of operating fuel plants, £15,261 in power purchased, and £24,457 in the item standby provision (principally payment of portion of the costs of operating King's Wharf steam plant.). Table 111 shows a reduction in operating costs of Horahora of £2,073, which is due to reduction in wages, salaries, and stores, owing to the reduced demand on the station, and a reduction in transmission-line costs of £1,678, which is due to reduction in salary and pay rates, and also to a reduction in the amount of general maintenance work which was necessary during the year. For the past four years working-costs per unit sold have been as follows : O-087d., 0187 d., 0-242 d., and 0-045 d., the respective amounts being determined mainly by the relative proportion of units from water-power and from steam plants. Power purchased during the year totalled 6,395,886 units, as compared with 15,994,315 in the previous year. This was all supplied by Auckland and Tauranga respectively, the latter supplying power under its contract until 27th October, 1932. 3. Extensions during the Year. (a) General. There were no additional bulk consumers during the year. The connected load, shown in Table IV herewith, increased from 296,225 kw. to 302,026 kw. The number of milking-machines supplied in the district was 6,606, an increase of 531, the number of electric ranges of all sizes 8,868, an increase of 524, and of water-heaters 20,084, an increase of 1,142. The' system maximum load for the four years past has been as follows : 41,520, 49,520, 18,710, and 54,020, but as only the last of these figures includes a full year's operation with the whole of the load supplied by Arapuni and Horahora they do not give an accurate idea of the growth of load in the area, which actually has averaged about 2,000 kw. a year in the past three years. The demand factor (ratio of maximum load to connected load) for the year was 17-9 per cent.

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