TransGrid has completed construction on a new $50 million substation at Macarthur to reinforce electricity supply in the rapidly developing South West Sydney region.
The new Substation provides Sydney’s South West region with enough power to supply 100,000 homes and businesses. The added capacity the new substation brings to the electricity network in the area will help to maintain high levels of reliability for customers in the region.
Areva, a leading international supplier of the latest substation technologies, constructed the Macarthur Substation for TransGrid.
Two state-of-the-art transformers have been installed and arrived on site care of a dedicated entry road, built off the Hume Highway.
The project involved extensive civil and landscaping works. The close proximity of a number of other utilities such as water and rail plus the difficult slope of the site required innovative designs to achieve a world class result.
The project was subject to detailed community consultation including a comprehensive environmental investigation sensitive to the local flora and fauna as well as the proximity of the Mount Annan Botanic Garden.
A range of innovative techniques were employed in the project, some of which included the utilisation of a very compact layout for the substation, the careful selection of colours for higher steel structures and the transformer sound walls to reduce impacts.
The new substation employed over 100 local contractors during its construction and is a key part of TransGrid’s annual capital works program.
As one of the most modern substations on the network, Macarthur is now a valuable part of the national electricity grid.