Powerful boost for growing region

Homes and businesses in South West Brisbane and Ipswich have received a powerful boost with a new joint Powerlink Queensland and ENERGEX substation at Goodna.

Minister for Mines and Energy Geoff Wilson said the Goodna Substation was part of a $91.4 million project to build three new 110kV substations to support growth in the South West Brisbane-Ipswich area.

“The completion of the Goodna Substation is a demonstration of Powerlink and ENERGEX’s commitment to meet the growing demand for electricity in the region,” Mr Wilson said.

“The South East Queensland area is the fastest-growing metropolitan region in Australia, and electricity demand is forecast to increase significantly over the next five years.”

“In particular, electricity use in the South West Brisbane and Ipswich areas is forecast to grow by eight per cent a year for the next three years, due to the continued population and industrial growth in the area.

Member for Bundamba Jo-Ann Miller said the new Goodna Substation would help meet that growth now and well into the future.

“The new substation means a more reliable power supply for the people who live and work in the region. It’s an investment in their future,” Ms Miller said.

Powerlink Chief Executive, Gordon Jardine said Powerlink had invested $38 million in the Goodna substation.

“The new Goodna substation is part of the South West Brisbane Project, which is a $91.4 million joint Powerlink and ENERGEX project to build three new 110kV substations at Goodna, Sumner and Algester to reinforce the local distribution network,” Mr Jardine said.

“In addition to our commitment to the South West Brisbane Project, Powerlink has also invested a further $21.1 million for a 275kV substation yard, which will help to reinforce the wider bulk electricity supply in the South East Queensland area.”

ENERGEX Acting Chief Executive Officer, Nev Bradford said the South West Brisbane Project would build capacity to meet the region’s growth in a 280 square km area bordered by Runcorn in the north, Browns Plains to the south and Tivoli and Raceview to the west.

”The Goodna substation will provide an additional 100 MV.A of capacity to the area which is equivalent to supplying over 35,000 new average households” Mr Bradford said.

“Working with Powerlink to successfully complete the Goodna work has been crucial to the provision of electricity to the fast growing Ipswich-Brisbane corridor now and into the future.”

Minister’s Office Ellen McIntyre 3225 1819

PowerLink Michelle Berardone 0419 791 322

About Powerlink Queensland:

Powerlink is a Government Owned Corporation, which owns, develops, operates and maintains a $3 billion high voltage transmission network that extends 1700km from north of Cairns to the New South Wales border. Powerlink’s primary role is to provide a secure and reliable network to transport high-voltage electricity from generators to electricity distribution networks owned by Energex, Ergon Energy and Country Energy. Powerlink also transports electricity directly to large Queensland customers, such as aluminium smelters and to New South Wales via the NSW/QLD Interconnector.

About ENERGEX:

ENERGEX distributes electricity to around 2.7 million people in south east Queensland. The company’s distribution area of 25,000 square kilometres includes more than 50,000km of underground and overhead electricity lines and cables, over half a million power poles, some 43,000 transformers and more than 290,000 street lights.