Mobile substation

How the mobile substation works.

Project Progress - Ongoing

OVERVIEW

Mobile substation

Zone substations reduce the high voltage electricity from the National Grid, ready for our customers to use. From time to time, maintenance and upgrade work needs to be done on our substations to ensure we can continue to supply power to our customers safely, reliably and efficiently.

The mobile substation allows electricity to bypass the substation, allowing for work to be carried out without extended outages. It helps keep our customers connected while our contractors carry out the necessary work.

The challenge

Many of our rural zone substations have a single power supply.
For safety reasons, this has meant power cuts during maintenance, planned replacement work or upgrades.

The solution

In 2019, Powerco commissioned a mobile substation. A mobile substation is a self-contained trailer equipped with the high and medium voltage components of a full substation.

The mobile substation will divert the electrical supply around the zone substation, allowing the zone substation to be removed from service without disrupting the community. The mobile substation will allow us to carry out upgrades and major maintenance, without extended outages.

The benefit

Minimal disruption to communities during substation upgrades or planned maintenance.
Greater flexibility for maintenance work.
Allows safe maintenance and installation work on zone substations.
Helps us to continue to work towards a more efficient, safe and reliable network for our customers.
Allows us to actively prepare for the future, support increased electricity demand and growing communities on our network.

Milestones

Construction begins

Work commences on constructing the Mobile substation.

Substation on the move

With testing completed, the mobile substation makes its way from the South Island up to Whanganui.

Mobile substation is deployed in Douglas

The mobile substation is installed at Douglas Substation in Taranaki. It will allow for the Douglas Substation to be bypassed for a 11kV protection upgrade, with defects to be fixed and maintenance work to be carried out.

2019

March 2020

July 2020

UPDATES

Find out the latest updates about this project

Mobile substation on the move

June 10, 2020
Mobile substation

Upgrading and maintenance work on Powerco’s 115 zone substations.

FAQ

Will I see any visual difference in the lines and equipment in my neighbourhood?

We strive to minimise impact in the design and placement of network infrastructure and we’re still planning and consulting on the route for the new circuit. The circuit will be a mix of overhead lines – which you will see, and underground cable – which you won’t see. You’ll also see a new building at our Putaruru substation, replacing the ageing existing building there.

Can I be sure the power will not go off once the new connection is complete?

We can never guarantee supply 100% of the time, however, the number and length of outages you experience will be reduced.