A substation upgrade and the installation of a new 1.5km feeder line in Yanchep have now been completed.
The works are part of Western Power’s investment of $10.4 million to upgrade the electricity grid following unprecedented load conditions during the Christmas 2021 heatwave.
The upgrades at Yanchep are aimed at better managing capacity overloads, to provide additional switching and offload capability within the network and to improve reliability for homes and businesses.
Western Power Asset Operations Executive Manager Zane Christmas said Western Power had overcome several challenges including the rocky terrain to deliver the project.
“The work is aimed at improving reliability and to enable better network management during consecutive extreme hot weather days., as well as providing capacity for future connections in this growing part of the metropolitan area.
“While we cannot guarantee 100 per cent reliability, we’re doing everything we can to improve network resilience to minimise the duration and number of unplanned outages.
Network switching is the process of moving electricity from one circuit to another – essentially re-routing the flow of energy, similar to traffic management re-directing vehicles on an alternate route if a road is congested.
If faults occur, these works will help reduce response times and assist in getting homes and businesses re-connected more quickly.
“As the Bureau of Meteorology has forecasted this summer to be as hot or hotter than last year, we’re doing what we can to strengthen the network well ahead of time.”