Sawyers Valley substation upgrade
Project update June 2011 - stage 2 upgrade brought forward
Western Power is pleased to announce that Stage 1 of the substation upgrade is now complete. Thank you to local residents for their patience during recent work at the Sawyers Valley substation. The next stage of upgrades will be brought forward in order to enable important development to occur.
As some community members may be aware, there will be no new substation at Mundaring Weir which was originally planned to supply electricity to the Water Corporations new water treatment plant and pumping station (more details are available on the Mundaring Weir Replacement Substation webpage on this site). Instead, the required electricity will be supplied via two underground cables from the Sawyers Valley substation, delivering significant environmental, community and economic benefits.
What’s Next
In order to enable the supply to the Water Corporation, the old part of the substation (still being used) will be upgraded. This was planned for a later stage but has been brought forward in order to accommodate a transformer dedicated to meet the Water Corporation’s requirements. The works are expected to start in Feb/ March 2012 and completed by 30 June 2013.
Two underground cables will connect the substation with the Water Treatment Plant and Pump Station C. Options for the cable routes are now being investigated. We are endeavouring to avoid vegetation clearing by following the existing overhead line route and technical feasibility studies are required to confirm that this is possible.
We will continue to provide updates on this website or you may contact us (details below) requesting to be added to a contact list. We will send correspondence to this group as well as nearby residents regarding project progress.
Background – the initial upgrade of Sawyers Valley substation
The first stage of the upgrade was required to prevent Sawyers Valley transformer capacity shortfalls, forecast to occur in summer 2011/12, and increase the substation’s reliability. This has assisted Western Power to maintain safe reliable power supply to the residents and businesses of Sawyers Valley, Mundaring and Childow, and the surrounding locale. The upgrade has converted the existing 66,000 volt (66 kV) substation to a 132000 volt (132 kV) substation by the installing of a new 132 kV switchyard and installed additional distribution feeders and communications infrastructure.
Contact
For more information please contact Project Officer, Rod Torrens, on 08 9326 4590 or email rod.torrens@westernpower.com.au
