Preliminary work has commenced on a $13 million electrical infrastructure upgrade at Powerlink’s 38-year-old Tarong Substation in Queensland.
Acting Queensland Energy Minister, Mark Ryan, said Powerlink was upgrading critical equipment to ensure a continued reliable supply of electricity to the South Burnett region.
“Tarong Substation is a major injection point in Powerlink’s transmission network, connecting the Tarong and Tarong North Power Stations to the grid,” Mr Ryan said.
“A team of highly skilled experts will replace the substation’s aging 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 currently 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, said replacing the secondary systems at Tarong Substation as 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 $2.2 billion on capital works in 2019-20, supporting up to 4,900 jobs.
