Preliminary work is underway on a $13 million electrical infrastructure upgrade that will keep the South Burnett in Queensland powered up.
Powerlink is upgrading critical equipment at its 38-year-old Tarong substation to ensure a continued reliable supply of electricity to the South Burnett region, acting energy minister Mark Ryan says.
That’s also expected to help with supply security for EV charging.
“Tarong Substation is a major injection point in Powerlink’s transmission network, connecting the Tarong and Tarong North Power Stations to the grid,” Ryan says.
“A team of highly skilled experts will replace the substation’s ageing secondary systems equipment over the next two years.
“This project will underpin the long-term safe, reliable and cost-effective performance of the transmission network in the South Burnett.”
Secondary systems are the control, protection and communications equipment that operate the transmission network and prevent damage to physical plant in the substation such as transformers.
The new secondary system control panels are undergoing factory acceptance testing at Powerlink’s Virginia site on Brisbane’s northside.
Crews are expected to start on-ground removal and installation works at the substation in April 2020 and continue until late 2021.
Powerlink interim chief executive Kevin Kehl says replacing the secondary systems at Tarong Substation is necessary to maintain Powerlink’s capability to respond to any unexpected network issues.
“This project upgrades the systems that are critical to monitoring and operating our assets.”
Queensland’s publicly-owned electricity companies – Powerlink, Ergon, Energex, CS Energy, Stanwell Corp and CleanCo, will invest more than A$2.2 billion on capital works in 2019-20, supporting up to 4900 jobs.
