Power upgrade to boost hills supply

By Tania Martin
HILLS people can look forward to an improved electricity supply in Belgrave and Monbulk.
SP AusNet, Victoria’s energy provider, is spending $621,000 to improve electricity supply and reliability for more than 3200 people in and around Belgrave and Monbulk.
The project will see the installation of new remote control feeder lines switches which allows problems with power supply to be immediately sealed off from the network through a control centre in Melbourne.
High-speed radio communications will then be used to detect power line faults and will divert power supply around the affected lines to minimise the number of customers affected by the fault and reduce the duration of power blackouts.
Lousia Graham of SP AusNet said without this remote control technology, a crew would have to travel to the site to identify the problem and manually isolate the power supply.
Ms Graham said the project is great news for Belgrave and Monbulk communities because the upgrade will protect customers from unexpected power cuts.
She said it will also give people living in the hills a more consistent electricity supply. “This project underlines SP AusNet’s commitment to ensuring a safe and reliable electricity supply to our customers in the Belgrave and Monbulk areas,” she said.
SP AusNet will have the new remote control technology up and running by December or January.