News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

[Wayno]

Agreed, Port Road especially should be a top priority

yep, Port Rd would certainly be a fantastic boulevard with the stobie poles gone...

[Norman]

Agreed, Port Road especially should be a top priority

yep, Port Rd would certainly be a fantastic boulevard with the stobie poles gone...

While they're at it, they should resurface and realign the road, improve stormwater drainage and make better use of the median space. Some Anzac Boulevard-type lights would be nice too.

[crawf]

Saw a thing on Seven News last night, that the State Government are going to build a underground high-voltage transmission line from Torrens Island to Keswick (via Port Road). Its part of a plan to upgrade the aging electricity network and power the needs for the Densal plant aswell the train/tramline expansion.

It will take 12 months to complete and will cause major traffic disruptions along Port Road.

I wonder if this means, the high-voltage lines along Port Road will be put underground aswell?, God I hope so


P.S Couldn't find anything about it this on AdelaideNow or the State Government website.

[Port Adelaide Fan]

$250 million electricity substation for Keswick

A $250 million electricity substation will be built at Keswick to avoid Sydney-style blackouts that plunged that city into chaos over summer.

It is the centrepiece of $1 billion of infrastructure spending being undertaken by the state's monopoly operator of high-voltage powerlines, ElectraNet, to improve the reliability of its ageing network. The program is adding an extra $9 a year to the average $1100 power bill.

The substation, which will take a direct feed from the Torrens Island Power Station, is also designed to support growth in the southern suburbs, in particular the desalination plant.

The 275,000 volt powerline will be put underground and will involve digging up the route – which includes Port Rd – from next March.

ElectraNet said the $250 million project would be the biggest electricity infrastructure spending in the city for more than two decades.

"The reason we're doing this is to prevent a recurrence of the sorts of things that happened in Sydney and Auckland," executive manager development Greg Rice said.

"Where there's been failure of one item of the transmission network and that's resulted in a cascade failure and lights out."

The state's energy regulator, ESCOSA , ordered ElectraNet to build the substation to protect Adelaide from blackouts in 2006.

It set an operational date of December 31, 2011 "regardless of the cost".

The Keswick substation would provide the city's second high-voltage underground power supply to feed into the ETSA network.

It will also help – but not end – power failures.

ElectraNet says about 200MW of power is needed in the city in peak times and with 5 per cent annual growth, the new line, which carries about 700MW, would more than support expected load growth.

"This is a $250 million project – it is a big project – it has a big impact in terms of the economic viability of the SA economy and its infrastructure which will create jobs, so it's all good news," Mr Rice said.

"It will reduce the probability of power failures, but it won't prevent them."

In its 2007 submission to the Australian Energy Regulator, ElectraNet said 35 per cent of its infrastructure was between 40 and 60 years old, making it one of the oldest networks in Australia.

As part of the $1 billion spending over five years, ElectraNet is also building new power substations in Mt Barker, Port Augusta, the Mid North and Templars to support the Barossa region.

Business SABusiness SA chief executive officer Peter Vaughan said the investment represented a huge boost for SA when combined with the Federal Government's investment in infrastructure spending. "The net effect will be we'll probably get more capital investment in SA in the space of five years than we had in the last 100," he said.

Acting Energy Minister Jay Weatherill said the expansion of the transmission network would "help ensure that future CBD demand growth can be met reliably while also providing support for demand growth in the western and southern suburbs".

"This expansion is an indication of South Australia's strong economic growth and increased business activity," he said.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

[crawf]

Thanks.

[crawf]

Heres the proposed Keswick substation.


I would say that vacant block of land including the mid-rise building on the right is the WorldPark development.

[fabricator]

I don't understand the part about the desalination plant. The oil refinery has always been feed via overhead power lines from the Happy Valley substation. There is more than enough power from that source, given the refinery is out of use.

More likely this is to help free up power from around adelaide, and perhaps a redundant connection for the desalination plant.

[Xaragmata]

The title doesn't really match the thread subject...

Underground cable installation in Port Road Hindmarsh, for Adelaide Central Reinforcement Program (electricity):










http://xaragmata.mooo.com/album/stobie/west/index.html

[fabricator]

Underground cable installation in Port Road Hindmarsh, for Adelaide Central Reinforcement Program (electricity):

Reinforcement ? Darn pen pushers, the word is redundancy!

There isn't really any for the CBD, one substation supplies most of the power, if its 275kv feeder fails so does the two types of high voltage cables from that area to the CBD. End result power cuts or brownouts as Dry Creek is too distant to supply all the power needed.

[crawf]

Found this concept plan for Port Road.
http://www.charlessturt.sa.gov.au/webda ... _plans.pdf

The aim of the project is to transform Port Road into a grand boulevard by creating wetlands and removing those ugly stobie poles. Looks good

[Xaragmata]

Underground cable installation in Port Road Hindmarsh, for Adelaide Central Reinforcement Program (electricity):

Reinforcement ? Darn pen pushers, the word is redundancy!

There isn't really any for the CBD, one substation supplies most of the power, if its 275kv feeder fails so does the two types of high voltage cables from that area to the CBD. End result power cuts or brownouts as Dry Creek is too distant to supply all the power needed.

They may have been having a laugh - ACRP is an anagram of CRAP.

[yousername]

SA wind can power nation
DANIEL WILLS From: The Advertiser July 15, 2010 9:05pm

SOUTH Australia has the capacity to become the nation's green-energy engine room, because of its potential for wind power projects, experts say.

An economic feasibility study by a Macquarie Capital-led consortium shows SA could almost double its energy-generation capacity through expansion of wind power alone - and sell the excess to the eastern states.

Three wind zones on Eyre Peninsula and one in the state's north with the combined capacity to deliver 30 per cent of Australia's renewable-energy target have been identified in the Green Grid study.

It shows a simple federal regulatory change would unlock billions of dollars in investment to expand infrastructure capacity and deliver large volumes of green SA power across the border to the eastern states.

The changes required would include making households in the eastern states pay a bigger share of the cost of building the infrastructure required to transport power to them.

The study found carrying power from sites identified near Elliston, Cleve, Port Lincoln and the Upper Spencer Gulf city of Port Augusta would require construction of one new powerline and the major upgrade of another.

This would cost $613 million would be spent on a new powerline connecting Elliston and Port Augusta.

Another $840 million would be spent to dramatically boost capacity of an existing line between Port Augusta and Heywood in Victoria.

SA households meet most of the cost of transmitting power from here to users interstate. Historical market regulations have emphasised state-by-state charges which place the payment burden on the state which houses the transmission infrastructure.

Experts say major reform and investment in the short term would ultimately lead to lower household bills than the existing ad-hoc system of progressive upgrades.

Under the proposed plan, $4.5 billion in investment would be rolled out between 2015 and 2018. Of that, $1.8 billion would be spent in SA, resulting in 1400 construction jobs. It is estimated a further 1600 indirect jobs would be created during the construction phase and 266 ongoing jobs would be delivered.

The report was commissioned by the State Government and the state's four major energy firms - Origin Energy, Pacific Hydro, Transfield Services and Acciona Energy - and have indicated interest in developing the infrastructure.

Premier Mike Rann said he expected an SA wind hub could provide a major contribution to meeting national renewable energy targets and would build momentum for regulatory reform.

"This is one of the most exciting investment opportunities for South Australia that we expect the private sector to grab with both hands," he said.

"I am pleased that four internationally experienced wind energy companies have already expressed great interest in the project.

"It will require a change to the federal regulations, but I expect the release of this report will accelerate the decision-making timetable for the changes required, given the national economic and environmental significance of this project."

Mr Rann said the report was evidence renewable energy could become one of the state's biggest industries, alongside defence and mining.

Federal legislation demands the nation's renewable energy proportion be lifted to 20 per cent by 2020. "As a state, we want to capitalise on that target," Mr Rann said.

Mr Rann said development regulations, tax breaks and open space for wind farms made SA more attractive than other states for renewable-energy investment.

SA has set a state-based target of achieving one third of its power generation from renewable energy by 2020.

"This project would see that target exceeded by 2015," Mr Rann said.

[rev]

On Churchill Road at Islington workshops they have the wind turbines in bits lying around, often see them moving them northwards up Churchill road with police escort.
Only the 'tower' parts seem to remain now though, blades and other bits are gone.

[fabricator]

On Churchill Road at Islington workshops they have the wind turbines in bits lying around, often see them moving them northwards up Churchill road with police escort.
Only the 'tower' parts seem to remain now though, blades and other bits are gone.

The Tower segments are made at Islington, everything else including the electrical hardware installed into the towers themselves arrives in shipping containers. The workshop is building a couple of new locomotives at the moment,

[Wayno]

Found this concept plan for Port Road.
http://www.charlessturt.sa.gov.au/webda ... _plans.pdf

The aim of the project is to transform Port Road into a grand boulevard by creating wetlands and removing those ugly stobie poles. Looks good

Apologies for the bump - anyone know the original purpose of this building on the Port Rd median strip? ==> google map

It's mentioned in the above concept plan as worthy of being retained.