Mackay’s Central Business District is getting a $28 million power boost with a major upgrade scheduled for the substation that powers it.
Member for Mackay Julieanne Gilbert said after serving the community well for more than 50 years, the zone substation in Tennyson Street is due for refurbishment.
“The Mackay City Substation upgrade will ensure it can meet the city’s needs for many years to come, with larger transformers to boost capacity and cater for future development,” she said.
“It will improve the reliability of the electricity supply for more than 4600 existing customers, including operators in the tourism, entertainment and business precinct.”
Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said Mackay Regional Council had identified the city’s riverfront as a priority area and the refurbishment would be a crucial aspect of the development.
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“This has reinforced the need to upgrade the ageing substation,’’ Dr Lynham said.
“We want to energise communities and support economic growth in the region by delivering an affordable, secure, sustainable and safe electricity supply now and into the future.
“The Palaszczuk Government announced in the 2019-20 Budget that it would invest more than $2.2 billion to ensure Queenslanders continued to enjoy some of highest electricity reliability standards in the world.
“More than $1.6 billion is being invested in our poles and wires across Queensland with Powerlink and Energy Queensland supporting more than 5200 jobs and we are investing more than $613 million in our power generators CS Energy and Stanwell supporting more than 1200 jobs.
“This investment in our power assets will help support our smooth transition to 50 per cent renewables by 2030 as more and more renewable generation projects come online.’’
The existing electrical equipment at the Mackay substation will be replaced with two new transformers, operating switchgear and power cables exiting the substation.
The new modular indoor HV switch rooms will be installed on Ergon Energy land adjacent to the substation, where contractor NF Corbett has commenced civil construction works.
The first of the new transformers was delivered to the work site last week.
Ergon Energy area manager Dan Werthenbach said in planning for this major project, we have made the community’s needs a priority to ensure the least possible disruption to businesses and residents during the construction phase.
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“The modern, modular buildings earmarked for the substation site are designed to be more visually appealing to the community,” he said.
The buildings, control panels and switchboards were manufactured at Ergon Energy’s workshop at Banyo in Brisbane.
They’ve made the long journey to Ergon’s Mackay depot where they will be housed until they’re installed at the work site in September.
The substation upgrade and associated changes to the distribution network are expected to be completed in October 2020.