Ergon Energy is to undertake a power reliability improvement project worth more than half a million dollars in the town of Tambo, located in Central West Queensland.
General Manager Service Delivery Central Steve Leighton said the program is designed to address the number of short duration interruptions that have been affecting the community for some time.
The project will reduce the instances of bird strikes on the main supply line from Blackall that have been the main cause of these intermittent trips on the system.
In the majority of cases it’s caused by large-wingspan birds such as plains turkeys flying into lines and causing a clash which triggers inbuilt protection on the high voltage network to operate.
The protection equipment is designed to operate in this manner to avoid major damage to the network and ensure public safety.
“We fully appreciate and understand that this has been a source of annoyance and inconvenience for the community and following deputations from Blackall Tambo Council Deputy Mayor Richelle Johnson and CEO Ken Timms, we have committed to this improvement project, ” Mr Leighton said.
The project will involve raising the height of the centre conductor on the line by installing centre post insulators on 180 concrete poles and installing centre conductor raisers on 131 wood poles in the high risk bird strike zone between Greendale amenities and Tambo.
Work is expected to start in July and will take around 12 weeks to complete.
The work will be done by the local Blackall crews and will be done by using a combination of live line work methods and planned outage measures.
Customers will be notified in advance of any planned interruptions that maybe required.
