Contractors are working around-the-clock on Ergon Energy’s $21 million substation on the outskirts of Mundubbera, Queensland, Australia, in an effort to have it operational before the end of the year. Area Operations Manager Craig Harris said principal contractor Tenix Alliance and its sub-contractors were making excellent progress on the substation under construction on the Benhams Road site beside the Burnett Highway.

“The building to house the sensitive equipment used to monitor and control the substation is well advanced, while the transformer and most of the high-voltage plant is in place in the substation yard,” Mr Harris said. “We expect to commence testing and Commissioning of the new site in September.”

Harris said the 66-kV powerline running outside the substation had to be cut in to the new substation site before the transformer could be energized.

“Unfortunately, we require an outage so this work can be done safely,” he said. “To minimize the inconvenience to the community, we have scheduled this work for Sunday between 8am and 2pm. All customers supplied from the Mundubbera substation, including those in Eidsvold, will have their power supply interrupted during this period.”

Harris said Ergon Energy crews from Bundaberg, Kingaroy and Maryborough would join those from the North Burnett to complete the tasks on Sunday.

“While the line from Gayndah to Mundubbera is de-energized, we will install an air break switch outside the Gayndah substation. “This will enable us for the first time to supply power to customers in the Mundubbera and Eidsvold areas if there is a planned or unplanned outage to certain equipment within Gayndah Substation.

“Together with the new substation having twice the capacity of the existing one, this will provide a significantly more reliable power supply for almost 2000 customers in Mundubbera and neighbouring areas.”

Harris said the crews also would carry out maintenance work in the Gayndah and Mundubbera areas on Sunday, including some which otherwise would have required a separate outage.

“We appreciate the patience and understanding of North Burnett residents while we upgrade their power supply. We expect to require only two more interruptions of this magnitude to complete the new substation,” he said.