$100 million powerline project for Sunshine Coast

Work is complete on a $100 million project to install a 17km long, 132,000V powerline, which will support the continued growth of the Sunshine Coast region.

The SunCoast powerline between Palmwoods and West Maroochydore, delivered by Energex, will power more than 275,000 homes, as well as jobs and business growth.

Queensland Minister for Energy, Dr Anthony Lynham, said essential infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity are crucial for a region’s growth, so the SunCoast power project was built for that reason.

“These power upgrades will help support thousands of local jobs for projects such as SunCentral, the expansion of the Sunshine Coast Airport and major domestic housing estates such as Aura,” Dr Lynham said.

The new line took nearly 3.5 years to construct and supported up to 24 direct and indirect jobs.

Prior to the completion of this project, the Sunshine Coast had two main circuits running from Queensland’s electricity backbone to the region, which were reaching their capacity at peak load periods, such as hot summer days.

“This new line has given the Sunshine Coast an additional major electricity injection point providing further capacity to the growing region,” Dr Lynham said.

“It also allows for maintenance work on the existing injection points without disrupting supply to existing customers, and provides additional reliability during storms or other unforeseen network events.”

Works are also moving ahead on a $17 million project to replace secondary systems at the Palmwoods Substation and refit Powerlink’s publicly-owned 90km long Palmwoods to Woolooga transmission line.

Dr Lynham said the two Powerlink projects supported 40 jobs and were necessary to keep up with the Coast’s growth.

“The Palmwoods substation is a major injection point in Powerlink’s transmission network and supplies Mooloolaba, Nambour, Beerwah and Caboolture,” he said.

“This project will underpin the long-term safe, reliable and cost-effective performance of the transmission network in this rapidly-growing region and will safeguard electricity supply on the Sunshine Coast for years to come.

“And Queenslanders know that they can rely on their electricity transmission and distribution systems because they remain owned by Queenslanders.”

Queensland’s publicly-owned electricity companies – Powerlink, Ergon, Energex, CS Energy, Stanwell Corp and CleanCo – will invest more than $1.76 billion on capital works in 2020-21, supporting up to 3,920 jobs.