Central Dunedin to benefit from new underground electricity cable

Businesses and residents in the Central Dunedin area will notice activity happening in the area over the next six months, as Aurora Energy install a new 2.5km 33 kV underground cable between Smith Street zone substation and Willowbank zone substation in Great King Street, heading towards North Dunedin.

The project will have significant benefits for almost 6000 customers in the Central Dunedin area who are supplied by either of these substations. The new cable will connect the two substations, and form part of a ring network to improve the security and resilience of electricity supply. The upgrade will reduce the risk of significant power outages due to more options being available to reconfigure the network if there is an outage, thereby reducing the number of customers impacted.

“We are aware there have been a number of other infrastructure projects in the CBD over the last year and these have caused disruption for some residents and businesses. Aurora Energy have worked closely with contractor Isaac Construction to align this project schedule with other work already underway, to minimise the impact to customers and make sure there won’t be any extra disruption in these same areas,” said Aurora Energy General Manager Service Delivery Richard Starkey. 

The cable project is now underway and will take a staged approach until 2024, with each stage impacting a different area.

“No power outages are needed to complete this work, and our contractors will be in touch with any businesses directly that will have their access impacted, prior to the relevant stage of work beginning,” Mr Starkey said.

Aurora Energy thanks the community for their goodwill and patience as they undertake this important upgrade work on the network as quickly and safely as possible. 

More information can be found here.