After two years on the table and months of planning, parts of the 300km Davenport to Leigh Creek line underwent refurbishment works throughout May and June 2022. The line includes the Hawker, Leigh Creek and Copley townships, and surrounding areas.
ElectraNet Senior Project Manager, Andrew Haines, said, “The scenery is just stunning and the locations our team and contractors worked in are some of the most remote areas in the state for our network.
“There was a huge complexity of work to be done in a short space of time. Network Operations initiated an Upper North Planning meeting in October 2021 and invited all interested groups to feed into the process of identifying all refurbishment works needing to be undertaken along the 300km line.
“Day-by-day planning was a necessity throughout the project and work had to stop for safety reasons during the wild weather in late May.”
Andrew said all works were completed on June 6 and ready for energisation on June 8.
On Monday 6 June, Meridian Helicopters completed a full aerial line survey prior to the assets being returned to service.
Andrew said, “Enerven conducted the substation maintenance work at Davenport Neuroodla, Leigh Creek South and Leigh Creek Coalfields, and line maintenance work at Davenport and Neuroodla, while Ventia were engaged to do the capital line work around Leigh Creek. We had to put distribution generation at substations which Enerven TDU provided at Hawker, Neuroodla, Leigh Creek South and Leigh Creek Coal Fields to allow us to offload the transmission line, in conjunction with SA Power Networks.
“When the switching was done, it was vital to include necessary limits and make sure nothing was missed. Enerven managed the outage and our people checked in every week to make sure the work was progressing.”
From a Safety and Sustainability point of view, many aspects had to be considered, including line safety and negotiating access to easements. This required a full ecological survey of the line and liaising with Traditional Land Owners.
“We also trialed a new piece equipment with Ventia, commonly known as a Spider. This machine allows us to conduct works in sensitive terrain with a reduced footprint”, Andrew said.
“This project is a great example of our team working efficiently together and with our contractors. It represents a shift in the way refurbishment works are planned and coordinated across Opex, Capex, Project Delivery, Asset Engineering and Maintenance Delivery, Project Engineering, Asset Strategy, Network Operations, Warehouse and Logistics, Supplier Relations and with significant support from the Safety and Sustainability Team.”
