Progress at the Casuarina Zone Substation

27 Jan 2011

Work at the northern suburbs substation has been underway since late 2008 with final works to transfer customers onto the new permanent feeders underway this month.

Most of the feeders, on the final bus-section, have been installed and commissioned, with another two feeders scheduled to be commissioned over the next month. 

Each feeder takes a number of hours to commission and an additional time is required to complete earthworks (e.g. locating conduits, opening jointing pits etc). 

This work is being completed during times of off-peak electricity load to ensure minimal disruption to customers – so crews continue to work overnight and on weekends. 

Replacing the 11,000 volt switchboard and associated infrastructure is a complex and systematic process, with safety of staff, contractors and customers a priority.

The new substation will improve security of power supply to homes and business in Darwin’s northern suburbs.

This is a vital electricity upgrade to meet growing demand from new suburbs and increasing demand from existing customers.

Work at Casuarina Zone Substation has included:

• Replacing the 11,000 volt switchboard that failed in late 2008 with industry standard vacuum technology.
• Adding extra feeders, allowing greater flexibility to re-route electricity around fault areas and reducing the length of outages for customers. 
• The 66,000-volt high voltage network within the substation has been upgraded, and one of the three transformers will be replaced.
• The capacitor bank has been rebuilt and the copper busbars, which transmit the high voltage electricity within the substation, have been upgraded.
• The switchroom has been refurbished, new walls and an internal roof have been added and the exterior has been updated.

The Mervyn Davies Recommendations can be seen in full.