Another Gympie power upgrade complete
Another Gympie power upgrade complete
9 June 2012
Energex has flicked the switch on the second major upgrade of Gympie’s power supply in a month, with more than 20,000 homes and businesses set to benefit from the $5.5 million upgrade.
Work on the second project involved the replacement of two 20MV.A transformers at the Wises Road substation with a more powerful 80MV.A system increasing capacity and improving reliability for the Gympie community.
The Wises Road facility is a major electricity centre for the entire region with supplies from there emanating to local electricity substations including Amamoor, Imbil, Gympie South, Gympie North, Goomboorian, Toolara Forest and Tin Can Bay/Rainbow Beach.
The Wises Road project follows last month’s announcement that Energex had completed a $23 million project to construct a new Gympie North substation at Pine Street and install around 4.2 km of 33,000 volt underground cables between the new substation and Wises Road.
Steven Lynch, Energex’s North Coast Asset Manager, said the projects were part of almost $40 million in investments underway or recently completed by Energex in the Gympie-Cooloola Coast area.
“Over the past couple of years significant effort has been placed on improving power supplies across the area and this is still ongoing,” said Mr Lynch.
“Besides these two projects we have also upgraded the powerlines between Coondoo Creek and Tin Can Bay at a cost of around $6 million, while work is still continuing on a new $4 million-plus substation at Goomboorian.”
Mr Lynch said the projects would assist to manage future growth in local power usage – especially use at peak times of the day such as hot summer afternoons/evenings – which can be attributed to South East Queensland’s rapid uptake of power-hungry appliances.
According to a recent household survey, 84 per cent of the region’s homes now have at least one large energy-intensive flat screen television and three quarters of homes have an air-conditioner installed, while a large number homes in the Gympie region have two or more aircon systems.
This domestic growth is being supplemented by commercial and industrial expansion and new housing developments.
Mr Lynch thanked residents around the Wises Road substation for their patience while the latest upgrade was taking place.
These projects are part of a five-year capital expenditure program being undertaken by Energex to upgrade the South East Queensland electricity network.
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