Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Power and Water Corporation’s Belinda Small says Nakara, Wagaman, Larrakeyah and Alawa will be the first Darwin suburbs to have their power lines installed underground

Transcript

Power and Water Corporation’s Belinda Small says Nakara, Wagaman, Larrakeyah and Alawa will be the first Darwin suburbs to have their power lines installed underground · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that Nakara Wogerman and Lara k here
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: they are programmed to be the first of Darwin's northern
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: suburbs to have their high voltage overhead power lines undergrounded. Well,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the first of the next round, I guess you'd say,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: because we know that there has been quite a few already.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: But the rollout is part of the government sixty million
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: dollar investment over six years to be undergrounded well, to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: have our power lines undergrounded the whole network. Now joining
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: me on the line is Power and Water's senior network
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of planning and Design, Belinda Small.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Belinda.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show. Belinda took us
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: through how it happens. I know that there's quite a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: lot of sort of time consuming process and work that
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: gets underway before you even sort of start to try
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: and underground those power lines.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, Katy. We've got all sorts of approval
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: processes before we even commence any design work. We've got
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: concept designs, which is looking at a very basic level
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: of design for the changes on the network. We've got
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: costs to consider. The we review the autage frequency and
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: duration for the customers in each of the suburbs, looking
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: at how many customers would benefit from a particular suburb
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: being one of the project being undertaken the particular suburbs,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: and then also the complexity of delivering the project within
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the suburbs.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Because I would imagine, you know, like the suburbs that
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: usually do end up you know, well that do end
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: up having the power lines undergrounded are the ones that
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: quite often are older suburbs, so some of that infrastructure
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: they've got probably a little bit older. And also there's
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: lots of like in a lot of cases, heaps of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: huge trees and stuff around too.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: That's correct, Katie, As was demonstrated in the after of
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Cyclo markets, trees have a huge impact on our power network.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Trees coming down on the high voltage power lines have
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: a much bigger impact on a larger number of customers,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: and the adages can also be far longer than otherwise
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: would be the case if it was just the low
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: voltage network. So that's why the first stage of this
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: next phase of the project is looking at undergrounding the
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: high voltage power lines and leaving the low voltage there
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: because that provides a bigger impact on reliability and security
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: of the networks for our customers.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And it must be like it must take quite some
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: time to sort of get you know, to get different
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: areas done. Belinda, when's it going to get started? And
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: you know how long will some of those suburbs take.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: So works already underway. We're not actually digging in the
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: streets just yet, but we've got design work in progress,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: we have we're looking at putting contracts in place, ensuring
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: that we've got everything lined up before we actually start digging.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: So there's already a lot of work in progress.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know that everybody sort of wants their
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: their power lines underground. But then once that work gets
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: underway and it gets a bit disruptive, they probably start
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to you know, start to complain a little bit or
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: wonder how long it's going to take.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: But it does require quite a bit of.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Work in terms of actually, you know, the digging and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: where they go and everything doesn't it.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: It does, And that impact on the customers as we're
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: doing the work in their suburbs also a consideration for
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  Speaker 3: us as we progress to getting closer to actually digging
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: up people's nature strips will be where we'll be putting
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: out communication plans and making sure people are very aware
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: of where we're going to be and how long it's
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: going to take and the impact on them specifically within
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: their street and in their in their front yard.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hey tell us.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: So the next suburbs obviously are, by the look of it, Nikara,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Wogman and Larachia, isn't it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: So we've currently got design work underway for Nakara, Wogman,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Larakia and Alaa four suburbs that are that are on
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: our starting list. So, yes, that's correct.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And where have we already done? Which suburbs have already
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: been done? Around the top end, so work.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Was completed a number of years ago in Nightcliff, Rapid
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Creek and Milner. We've also more recently completed undergrounding of
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: eight out of the nine high voltage connections to schools.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: And so when you're sort of going through the process,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I suppose of getting the work done in those different areas,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: does it come down to undergrounding some of those locations
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that are a bit older and that maybe have the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: more aging infrastructure.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: It really does come down to the number of outages,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: number of customers, and complexity of actually doing the work.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: So we try and factor all three in in some cases,
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  Speaker 3: so all of these are quite old suburbs and it's
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: difficult to differentiate based on age. Some suburbs have had
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: upgrades at different times for different sections of their network.
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  Speaker 3: So we're very much focused on those three key things
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: of number of customers, the current impact that adages have
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: on those customers in that suburb, and how hard it
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: is for us actually to complete the project. Some suburbs
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: have more rocks than others, so they're a lot harder
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: for us to deliver. So we're not getting the same
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: value for money for a suburb that would be easier
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: to deliver.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Right, And so obviously those works already sort of starting
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to get underway in terms of the planning and that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. And then as the years go on,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: we'll see the likes of the Narrows, Fanny Bay, Jingly, Moyles,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Stuart Park, and I guess everywhere else get underway.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: That's correct. There's thirteen suburbs all I live in one
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: of those suburbs, and I'm not the first cab off
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  Speaker 3: the ranks. So I'm looking forward to making sure that
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: we deliver that whole project so that I don't have to,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: so that my power reliability has improved in my suburb
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Good stuff that is good to hear, Belinda, And I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: know that plenty of people will be wondering when their
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: suburbs is going to get underway, But it is time
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: consuming and it is something that you know that will
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: take a lot of planning and a lot of work.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: So really appreciate you having a chat with us this
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: morning and talking us through it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: All, no worries.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks so much for your time.