EN E RGY NE TWORKS | Sponsored editorial
A TRUSTED PARTNER FOR A MAJOR AUSTRALIAN INFRASTRUCTURE ELECTRICITY PROJECT The Transgrid Victoria-NSW Interconnector (VNI) upgrade project will help lower the cost of wholesale electricity across the National Electricity Market and enable better power flows between Victoria and NSW by unlocking 190 megawatts of additional energy, enough for 30,000 homes. Transgrid will do this, without the need to build additional transmission line infrastructure, by installing clever technology at their substations at Stockdill in the ACT and at Yass in NSW.
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or the construction phase of the VNI project, Transgrid contracted Zinfra, a leading national engineering, construction and maintenance service provider. A well-established and trusted partner to industry, Zinfra is using its expertise and a committed team for the installation of innovative SmartValves technology from Smart Wires at the substations.
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FIRST LARGE SCALE INSTALLATION OF SMARTVALVE TECHNOLOGY IN AUSTRALIA The SmartValve technology pulls energy off of congested lines and pushes it onto lines with spare capacity. It will stabilise the grid, reduce congestion and will also enable power from renewable resources to flow from where it’s generated to where it’s most needed.
Zinfra has successfully installed nine SmartValve technology units at the Stockdill substation and is currently preparing for a further six units to be installed at Yass. Each unit weighs in at just over eight tonnes and sits on six-metre-high support structures. A corona cage, a steel cage which wraps around each unit, was erected, topping the installation out at almost ten metres.
