Auckland Electric Supply.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 8, 1 June 1909, Page 271

Auckland Electric Supply.

The Auckland City Council, after obtaining Parliamentary powers decided to proceed with an electric supply for the City, in the year 1906. Mr. W. G. T. Goodman was consulted and after full consideration it was decided to establish a small station in conjunction with the City Council Destructor, which had already been at work for two years. The Destructor consists of two Meldrum Cells with one Babeock Boiler, having a heating surface of 1,900 square feet. The position of the Destructor being fairly central it was decided to put in a low tension three wire supply with 460 volts between the outers. Additions were made to the Destructor building at a cost of about £5,000 to accommodate four direct coupling generators, having a total capacity of 1,000 kilowatts. Two generators were installed to begin with, and one Babeock Boiler with a chain grate stoker and a coal furnace. Distributing mains were laid only in Queen Street, the principal business street of the city, with a few short branches. At the end of 1907, Mr. Alexr. Wyllie arrived from England to take charge of the undertaking which was ready for opening on the 10th February, 1908. It soon became evident lhat the demand was going to outstrip the provision made in the original contract, and immediate additions had to be made to the feeders and the distributing mains. An additional Babeock & "Wilcox Boiler was ordered immediately and was ready for work about the middle of 1908. A new generating set was ordered from England and has since been erected. It was also evident that the demand would exceed the possibilities of the present site and the Council at once took measures to secure an adequate site in a good central position with good facilities for coal and water. This site is situated on a central part of the Harbour front, and it is expected that

it will be shortly available for starting the erection of a much larger and a new station. The Capital outlay on the undertaking at the date of commencement was about £2,600. Since then, however, large additions have been made to the mains and to the station bringing up the present Capital outlay to about £40,000. The Council is at the present time laying 8,000 yards of street main for the supply of private consumers. During the first year of working 200 customers were added to the mains and large numbers of applications are still coming in. All the distributors in tiie City are laid underground, and are all vulcanised bitumen cable laid solid in bitumen in earthen and wooden troughs. Up to the present all the feeder cables are carried overhead. The only special electrical feature of the station is the balancing of the system by means of three wire generators which have slip rings in addition to the Commutator, so that the machines automatically balance themselves without the aid of Batteries or Balancing Hets. There is a large Tudor Battery included in the Engine Room equipment which is used at times of light load. There are three generators each having a capacity of 225 K.W. The 'engines are Browett-Lindley and the dynamos are by the Westinghouse Company. The battery consists of 250 Tudor cells with a capacity of about 500 Ampere-hours. At present there is no condensing plant. The Boiler house equipment consists of three Babcock Boilers, each with a heating surface of 1,728 square feet. One of the boilers is erected over the Destructor furnaces and the other two are fitted with chain-grate stokers for burning coal. Up to the present all the feeder cables are carried on wooden poles. The whole of the Distributor cables are Henley's or Calender's V.B. Cables laid solid with bitumen in earthenware or wooden troughs.