A 60-year-old substation in East Warwick (QLD) will be rebuilt by Ergon Energy in a major project that will complete the refurbishment of the key infrastructure on the electricity network supplying the town.
Ergon Acting General Manager Service Delivery Craig Harris said the existing substation had served the community well since 1954, but a modern replacement was needed to meet the future requirements of residents and businesses.
“The substation will be rebuilt in stages over the next 18 months to ensure continuity of power supply while the work proceeds,” Mr Harris said.
“One of the existing transformers will be removed and a new transformer brought into service before the process is replicated with the second transformer.
“The new 25MVA transformers will have the capacity to meet future demand on the network and also enable some load that has been temporarily transferred to West Warwick substation to be returned.”
Mr Harris said the aesthetics of the redesigned substation would be more appealing to neighbouring residents due to the indoor design and landscaped buffer zones.
“While the existing substation is built outdoors, the revamped version will feature two modular buildings to house the new switchgear,” he said.
“The substation will also have new capacitor banks and circuit-breakers and the start of the feeder lines out of the substation will be replaced.”
Mr Harris said this work was the last component of a series of projects that had already dramatically improved the reliability of supply to Warwick and, in some cases, other parts of the Southern Downs.
“Almost a decade ago, this was one of the worst-performing parts of our network, but since then we have refurbished one of the sub-transmission lines from Toowoomba to Warwick and rebuilt the second one as a new, high-reliability line,” he said.
“The West Warwick substation was upgraded and work is under way to upgrade the Warwick bulk supply substation, while the high-voltage lines between the substations have been replaced.
“When the work at East Warwick and the bulk supply substation has been completed, the Warwick community can be confident of having a safe and reliable power supply for years to come.”
Mr Harris said the total cost of the project would be about $38 million and Tenix, which had been awarded the contract for the substation work, would begin operations in mid-July.
The substation, at the intersection of Percy and East streets, supplies about 5000 customers in the town and in rural areas to the east of Warwick.
