A project by Ergon Energy to reinforce high voltage power supply to Mt Morgan and the Malchi substation at Gracemere, Queensland has begun.
General Manager Service Delivery Steve Leighton said the $3.5 million project involved the replacement of a nine km section of primary 66,000 volt line between Egans Hill and Gavial switching station just before Bouldercombe and will be upgraded from a timber pole line to a high reliability concrete pole line.
“This will improve network reliability and security of supply to Mt Morgan and also the Malchi substation which services the rapidly growing industrial and residential areas of Gracemere.”
The new power line will be constructed within the road corridor of the Burnett Highway for which Department of Transport and Main Roads approval had been obtained.
It (the new power line) will follow the existing line route for some sections of the route, however, in other sections it will change to the road corridor on the opposite side of the highway to maintain supply to Mt Morgan and Gracemere while the new line is constructed.
“This is to ensure that any disruption to the community is kept to an absolute minimum and there are no significant long-term outages during construction and why we undertook some line route clearing in some locations” he said.
“The original nine km section of line is an aging asset and at over 60 years old is now due for replacement.”
Construction of the project is expected to take around three months – weather dependant.
When the new line is commissioned the old line with be decommissioned and removed.
