Civil works have been completed at the Transgrid Stockdill substation in the ACT for the Victoria-NSW Interconnector (VNI) upgrade. The works began in February and have involved 100 people, most of them from the ACT region.
VNI
VNI project progresses to provide more clean energy for NSW and the ACT
18 November 2021
“The VNI upgrade will help reduce electricity bills through more efficient sharing of generation resources between the states,” said Transgrid Executive Manager of Delivery Craig Stallan.
“When complete, VNI will allow an additional 170 megawatts of power to flow from Victoria to NSW and the ACT, much of it from renewable energy sources from Victoria.”
The Stockdill 330kV substation footprint has been increased by 25 per cent. Approximately 8000 cubic metres of fill was imported for civil works to allow installation of Smart Wires modular power flow controller technology.
The Smart Wires units, scheduled for delivery from the USA in the next few months, redirect electricity flows to less congested lines when the system detects areas of congestion in the network, enabling additional power to be transmitted efficiently.
“With Smart Wires we can unlock the benefits of VNI to the National Electricity Market without having to upgrade more than 100 kilometres of transmission lines through the Snowy Mountains region,” Mr Stallan said.
“By using existing transmission lines, we have minimised the impact on the environment, the community and neighbouring landowners.”
Once the Stockdill substation is completed by mid-2022, Transgrid will commence installing the Smart Wires technology at Yass.
The VNI Upgrade project is scheduled for completion in late 2022.
For more information on the VNI Upgrade go to https://www.transgrid.com.au/vni
Transgrid media contact:
Wendy Searle 0400 924 974