A new substation on the Sunshine Coast is set to include technology that will restore power to locals faster following outages.
The new $16.4 million facility will replace the 76-year-old complex on the corner of Landsborough-Maleny Road and Bunya Street at Maleny.
A Department of Energy spokesperson said the current hub was ageing and required replacing.
“Constructed in 1948, the original substation is nearing the end of its functional life,” they said.
The new substation is being built in three stages.
The first stage is already complete, and the entire project should be finished by mid to late 2027.
The spokesperson said it should provide significant benefits to locals.
“A new substation will ensure Maleny and its surrounding areas have a safe and reliable power supply,” they said.
“The new facility will be more visually appealing than the current open-air one and will include new technology which will allow power to be restored much more quickly following any outages.”
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The state government recently announced the current substation would receive a $3.3 million upgrade “to avoid power disruption while the new substation is built”. The upgrade costs are part of the overall $16.4 million expenditure.
“During the upgrade period there may be some planned outages and all affected customers will be notified by (energy company) Energex in advance,” the spokesperson said.
Substations plays an important role in the energy network. There are 66 of them on the Sunshine Coast and surrounds.
Energex receives electricity from fellow energy company Powerlink Queensland at bulk supply stations. The electricity is then distributed, via powerlines or underground cables, at 132,000, 110,000 or 33,000 volts, to zone substations like the one at Maleny.
The zone substations then transform the electricity to 11,000 volts and it is distributed to distribution substations.
The distribution substations – the large boxes that can be seen beside streets and mounted to poles – transform the electricity to a voltage suitable for use in homes and businesses with 240-volt electrical equipment.
Powerlink explained that the role of substations is to monitor and control the flow, stability, quality and voltage of electricity on the transmission lines connected to the facility.
Equipment located within substations is used to transform the voltage of electricity, protect the network, measure the flow of the electricity and switch electricity between the different transmission lines and transformers on the grid.
Transformers are key components in all types of substations. They reduce the voltage of electricity to a lower level suitable for domestic or commercial use.
The aerial imagery in this story is from Australian location intelligence company Nearmap. The company provides government organisations, architectural, construction and engineering firms, and other companies with easy, instant access to high-resolution aerial imagery, city-scale 3D content, artificial intelligence data sets, and geospatial tools to assist with urban planning, monitoring and development projects in Australia, New Zealand and North America.
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