Customer case study
About the customer
DevelopmentWA is the State Government’s central development agency, with a diverse portfolio of industrial, commercial and residential projects across Western Australia.
Being a strong proponent of innovation through its ‘Innovation through Demonstration’ delivery ethos; DevelopmentWA via the Industrial Lands Authority, has delivered the State’s first green-titled renewable energy industrial microgrid in the Peel Business Park in Nambeelup.
- Developing an AS3000/AS2067 compliant ‘behind-the-meter’ embedded network design using Western Power’s standard equipment and design specifications for a regular subdivision network;
- Having to incorporate a ‘future’ Western Power intake, customer switch room and cable ducting system within the design, with limited load data;
- Incorporating both current and future microgrid control functionality with additional provision for future ‘primary’ type switchgear, within a standard 22kV Western Power switch room.
- Incorporating Western Powers newly deployed Low Voltage Public Electricity Network Distribution Assembly (LV PENDA) kiosks and switchgear ‘on the fly’, whilst under tight time
- (The transition occurred mid-way through this project, which presented many challenges and risks which required careful management);
- Having to incorporate earth leakage protection in street lighting circuits within Western Power’s standard substation configurations;
- Interfacing with the many project stakeholders.
How did Western Power solve the customer challenge?
- Meticulous design of both 22kV switch rooms and associated cable pit and ducting systems;
- Utilising Type 1 PENDA kiosks with carefully selected protection in lieu of Universal Pillars to achieve compliance with ‘behind the meter’
- standards. This also eliminated the requirements for a customized switchboard to supply each property.
- We use Type 1 kiosks on rare occasions for site/network specific purposes. These Type 1 kiosks are largely unknown to most Western Power customers, so having our distribution experts on the job ensured an ideal solution wasn’t missed;
- Re-purposing ‘customer’ fuse-switch-disconnectors for transformer incomer protection to limit energy
- let-through in accordance with AS/NZS 3000;
- This allowed us to utilise standardised and rigorously tested Western Power Type 2 PENDA kiosks;
- Modified arrangement of Western Power’s standard Non-Modular Packaged Substation (Non MPS) to incorporate a low-cost streetlight protection switch -board with earth leakage
- Cascading was implemented to reduce fault levels and switchgear costs in switchboards.
Scoping and designing the first stage of an innovative ‘behind the meter’ embedded distribution network, including the 22kV intake supply from the Western Power grid.
The following snapshot provides an overall picture of the size/scale of the project:
- Intake switch room for connection of 3x 22kV feeders from the Western Power grid;
- 1x 22kV customer switch room (15 MVA capacity with 8x 22kV feeders to accommodate expansion);
- 22kV customer switchgear provision for the purpose of future embedded generation (incl. protection and metering current transformer (CT) and voltage transformer (VT) cubicles), for compliance with Western Power technical rules;
- Provision to connect 1x neutral earthing compensator for future islanding capability;
- Future intake switch room for increased capacity and/or supply security;
- Future customer switch room to future-proof the customer installation;
- 5x outdoor 22kV switchgear kiosks;
- 4x outdoor 630kVA step-down transformers (2,520kVA total);
- 10x LV Public Electricity Network Distribution Assemblies (PENDA);
- 7x LV switchboards;
- ~1,700m of 22kV feeder cabling;
- ~830m of LV feeder cabling;
- ~670m of streetlight.
How did the customer benefit from having Western Power involved?
- Having in-house experts with comprehensive knowledge of the Western Power equipment, materials and standards allowed us to identify and develop various solutions which resulted in unprecedented benefits for all stakeholders;
- The embedded network design for the microgrid is backwards compatible to a standard Western Power subdivision network design. This reduces the operational risk should the private network ever need to be operated by Western Power in a standard subdivision configuration;
- Assurance that all critical electrical distribution equipment and materials used within the private network are reliable;
- Assurance that any future additions and/or replacements within the private network will be readily available through Western Power.
What was the outcome?
Our Design Consultancy provided a safe, sustainable and constructible design solution in line with the design objectives. This allowed the customer to successfully complete and hand-over the project to the end-user.


Left: Switch Room #1 – 22kV Feeder Cabling. Right: Customer Intake Switch Room #1