A $13 million upgrade to a Central Queensland substation will help secure power supply from Rockhampton to Cairns.
Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said the upgrade to Broadsound Substation near Marlborough would help deliver a reliable supply of electricity to Queenslanders from Rocky, west to Emerald and north to Cairns.
“The Broadsound Substation, located west of Marlborough, was built in 1984 and is critical to transporting power generated in Central Queensland to communities in north and western Queensland,” Dr Lynham said.
“This important project supported up to 31 jobs and has extended the substation’s life and delayed the need to establish new infrastructure.
“The work was done in stages to maintain reliable supply to customers.”
The upgrade was to secondary systems – the control, protection and communications equipment that operates the transmission network and prevents damage to physical plant in the substation such as transformers.
Powerlink Chief Executive Merryn York said the upgrade boosted Powerlink’s capabilities in responding to network issues.
“The secondary systems upgrade focused on replacing the systems that allow us to manage our network which are critical to the monitoring and operation of our assets,” Ms York said.
“Powerlink’s asset management approach is to maintain reliability and safety at the lowest long run cost to customers.”
“Secondary system projects such as this are cost-effective solutions that avoid or delay the need to establish new infrastructure.”
