WEL Networks announced on Friday 19th November that it has officially completed construction of its new 25 kilometre electricity line, which connects the Te Uku wind farm near Raglan with its substations. But WEL says Raglan residents will have to wait a few more years for a backup power line as the new line is still missing the section from Waitetuna to its Te Uku substation. Although WEL has this section in its strategic plan, it has not announced a date for the missing link. At this stage the sole purpose of the new line will be to export Te Uku wind farm power to the Waikato.
The $14 million project, which includes eight kilometers of undergrounding, was constructed in 31 weeks. It is the largest new line build project ever undertaken by WEL Networks and the largest line build project by an electricity distribution company in New Zealand this year.
The line build was completed in October and line commissioning, which marked the end of the project, finished this week.
Dr Julian Elder, Chief Executive of WEL Networks, says the new line is an important component of the upgrade work the company is implementing on its western network.
“This new line build not only connects the Te Uku wind farm with our substations, it is also an important part of WEL Networks strategy to increase the reliability and security of supply in the greater Raglan area,” he explains.
WEL Networks’ Western Network Upgrade began in 2005 and will be largely completed by 2013. The upgrade work includes eleven separate projects, such as building new substations and upgrading others, upgrading existing lines and installing new lines both above and below ground.
“These projects have already resulted in fewer outages and better quality of supply in the area, and these improvements will get even better as the western network upgrade work is progressed.
“Security of supply is also increasing in the greater Raglan area. That’s because part of our upgrade work involves building back-up systems so that if one part of our western network is down, other parts take over and power stays on,” explains Dr Elder.
As part of its western network upgrade, WEL Networks began a new project this week, which involves maintenance and upgrading work on six kilometers of existing line between Cogswell Road, east of Raglan, and Whatawhata, just west of Hamilton. The upgrade work involves replacing old wires on the current line with new wire.