Upgrades to Transgrid substations at Yass and Stockdill are set to produce enough additional energy to power more than 30,000 homes and come as part of the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector (VNI) upgrade project.
The upgrades will allow renewable energy to flow between Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
Transgrid’s Executive General Manager of Delivery, Craig Stallan, said the VNI project is now more than 80 per cent complete.
“As part of the VNI project we’re upgrading the Yass and Stockdill substations to unlock an additional 170 megawatts of energy – enough power for an additional 30,000 customer homes,” Mr Stallan said.
“Six SmartValve units have been delivered to Yass which will provide 50 megawatts of that additional energy.”
Nine SmartValve units have already been commissioned at Transgrid’s Stockdill substation and the six at Yass will be installed by the end of September with testing to commence in October.
Transgrid is the first large-scale user of SmartValve technology in Australia.
By deploying this technology Transgrid is able to upgrade substations using existing transmission infrastructure, with the SmartValve units redirecting power off overloaded transmission lines and onto lines with spare capacity.
“This is clever technology which benefits both customers and the environment and will allow renewable energy from Victoria to flow into NSW and the ACT when demand is greatest,” Mr Stallan said.
“Using SmartValves means no new lines are needed, so extra energy is unlocked with minimal environmental and community impact associated with building new lines or upgrading existing ones.”
Commissioning of the units at Yass substation is expected by the end of 2022.
The VNI upgrade is scheduled for completion in December.
