East Warwick substation upgrade completed

Electricity transmission towers (reliability panel)
Image: Shutterstock

The East Warwick substation has been rebuilt at a cost of $33 million, completing a full upgrade of the Southern Downs generators and network.

The upgrade has taken 10 years and will provide the Southern Downs community with safer and more reliable energy.

Minister for Energy Mark Bailey announced the completion of the work, saying when the project commenced the Warwick region was one of the worse-performing parts of Ergon’s network.

“Customers experienced an unacceptable number of power supply interruptions during severe storm seasons,” he said.

The project includes the refurbishment of on of the sub-transmission lines from Toowoomba to Warwick and rebuilding the second one as a new, high-reliability line, an upgrade of the West Warwick substation, refurbishment of the Warwick to Stanthorpe line, and upgrading the East Stanthorpe line.

Two new 25MVA transformers have the capacity to meet increasing demand on the network, and the substation has new capacitor banks and circuit-breakers.

The new substation is indoors and has landscaped buffer zones.

“While the old substation was built outdoors, the revamped version features two modular buildings to house the new switchgear,” Mr Bailey said

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