By JONATHON HOWARD
RELIABLE power to Stanthorpe will be significantly reduced over the next 20 years unless Ergon Energy’s plan for a new powerline route is adopted, according to a report released by Aurecon last week.
Aurecon, a specialist in technical services, was asked to carry out an independent report on Stanthorpe’s current and future power needs by the Power Community Reference Group, as well as investigating the use of renewable power sources such as wind and solar.
The report was undertaken after members of the Power CRG, AWARE members and concerned residents found inaccuracies in an Ergon Energy report – which contained a number of data discrepancies for Stanthorpe’s power outages.
Aurecon’s report revealed that Stanthorpe experiences, on average, between four and five power outages each year, with an average duration of 133 minutes each.
However, the longest outage in the previous decade lasted 13 hours, according to the report.
“This is due to the fact that there is very little redundancy in the system and as a result, faults in other parts of the network also have an impact on the total reliability at Stanthorpe,” the report said.
The report’s analysis of the demographic data, plus load history, indicated that the load supplied at Stanthorpe bulk supply substation was likely to exceed 15MVA (mega volt ampere) consistently by 2015.
Growth between 1 per cent and 2 per cent was expected in the longer term.
“Reliability of supply to Stanthorpe is expected to deteriorate due to the lack of redundancy and increasing failure rates affecting the aging 110kV (kilovolt) wood pole sub-transmission line that supplies
Stanthorpe,” the report said.
“Under these circumstances, mandated security standards and reliability targets cannot be met.
“An analysis of all options reveals that the most cost effective and practical option is to install a second 10kV sub-transmission feeder from Warwick to Stanthorpe.
“This is the optimum development to ensure a reliable electricity supply to Stanthorpe that meets the mandated reliability and security targets.”
The report also said alternative options such as wind generation at Stanthorpe, which it said was not a viable proposition as Stanthorpe does not have high enough average wind speeds.
“In the area approximately 20km to the north of Stanthorpe, there are sufficiently high average wind speeds for wind generators to be viable,” the report said.
“However, wind is generally intermittent and it would require approximately 20MW to provide sufficient power for the Stanthorpe area.
“This would also require a 20km, 33kV feeder to be established. The total cost of this is likely to be in the vicinity of $75 million.”
Former member of the CRG and concerned resident Tony Maw has refuted the Aurecon report and believes the Rabbit Ridge Wind Farm power generation proposla holds the answer.
Finding from proponents of the Rabbit Ridge Wind Farm report will offer an alternative approach to using installing a new line.
The Rabbit Ridge report was expected to be released in the coming days and a full wrap of the report will be available in next week’s Free Times.
