End in view for power upgrade
Powerco’s multi-million-dollar project to boost the reliability of power supply to Palmerston North will involve more roading disruptions, but the end is in sight.
This week the roof is being raised on its new substation on the corner of Ferguson and Linton streets, so equipment can be lifted in, marking a milestone in the Palmerston North CBD project that began five years ago.
Powerco design engineer Alan Keaskin, until recently the project engineer, said there was still some trenching to be done around city streets, and some further disruptions as cables were hauled through ducts that had already been laid underground.
But the project to supply more of the city’s power supply from Linton, making it less dependant on Bunnythorpe, was ‘‘building toward completion’’.
At the moment the city depends on the bulk of its power being supplied from Bunnythorpe, a situation Keaskin said created too much risk should there be a catastrophic failure at Bunnythorpe.
Bringing more of the load from Linton would make supplies more resilient and better able to cope with the city’s growth.
Power was already delivered from Linton through cables on the Fitzherbert Bridge and under the Manawatu¯ River.
In about six months time additional cables would be fed through ducts created on the new He Ara Kotahi cycle and pedestrian bridge, with capacity to add more in future.
Ducting had been laid to bring cables across the Dittmer Reserve, through to the Ferguson St substation.
There, the 33kv supplies would be converted to 11kv and fed back out to transformers.