Transgrid’s Victoria-NSW Interconnector (VNI) upgrade is one step closer to completion, with civil works finished at the Stockdill substation in the ACT.
The works began in February 2021 and have involved 100 people, most of them from the ACT region.
The Stockdill 330kV substation footprint has been increased by 25 per cent, and approximately 8000 cubic metres of fill imported for civil works to allow installation of Smart Wires modular power flow controller technology.
Transgrid Executive Manager of Delivery, Craig Stallan, said, “The VNI upgrade will help reduce electricity bills through more efficient sharing of generation resources between the states.
“When complete, VNI will allow an additional 170MW of power to flow from Victoria to NSW and the ACT, much of it from renewable energy sources from Victoria.”
The Smart Wires units, scheduled for delivery from the USA in the next few months, redirect electricity flows to less congested lines when the system detects areas of congestion in the network, enabling additional power to be transmitted efficiently.
“With Smart Wires we can unlock the benefits of VNI to the National Electricity Market without having to upgrade more than 100km of transmission lines through the Snowy Mountains region,” Mr Stallan said.
“By using existing transmission lines, we have minimised the impact on the environment, the community and neighbouring landowners.”
Once the Stockdill substation is completed by mid-2022, Transgrid will commence installing the Smart Wires technology at Yass.
The VNI Upgrade project is scheduled for completion in late 2022.
For more information on the VNI Upgrade go to https://www.transgrid.com.au/vni.
