New underground electricity cable
Residents in Arrowtown, Arthurs Point, Coronet Peak, Dalefield and Gibbston, along with Queenstown's ski fields, can expect fewer electricity outages after the major upgrade of a power line.
Aurora Energy has spent 18 months on the project to install the new underground Arrowtown 33 kV distribution cable, that runs from Frankton to Malaghans Road.
The area was previously supplied by two power lines that shared the load between them, with limited access to an alternative electricity supply if there was a power outage.
In July 2021, one of the power lines came down across Shotover Bridge, cutting power to hundreds of homes and the skifield, as well as closing State Highway 6 for two hours, creating traffic chaos across the Whakatipu Basin.
Aurora Energy General Manager Service Delivery Richard Starkey said the new 33 kV underground cable will provide a number of benefits for the community.
"The new cable provides increased capacity to cater to the significant growth and new developments expected over the coming years," he says.
"This is good news for local customers and businesses, in particular the ski fields, and will reduce the risk of significant outages due to more options to reconfigure the network if there is a widespread outage, thereby reducing the number of customers impacted."
The Arrowtown line is supplied from Transpower’s Frankton GXP and supplies four zone substations (Dalefield, Coronet Peak, Arrowtown and Remarkables) that transform the voltage from 33kV to 11kV distribution. From there, 11kV cable distributes power to smaller distribution transformers.
The northern section supplies Coronet Peak ski field and residential/commercial customers from the Arrowtown and Dalefield substation. The southern section supplies the Remarkables ski field, Wye Creek hydro station and residential/commercial customers from Arrowtown zone substation.
The project was completed in June, ahead of schedule.
Starkey also said the new cable will help with the Increasing demand for electricity as more people move away from fossil fuels.
"More and more people are purchasing EVs and wanting more choice about how they use electricity, such as connecting solar to their home or business. The increased capacity the new line will provide is part of Aurora Energy future-proofing the network and helping people reduce their overall carbon emissions."
Aurora Energy have been completing a large programme of work in the Arrowtown and surrounding areas as part of their five-year $500 million investment programme to upgrade the electricity network.
Starkey says the company thank the community for their patience while this important work continues to be carried out.
Over the next four years, Aurora plans to rebuild the Arrowtown zone substation, reconfigure the Arrowtown 11 kV distribution line, rebuild the Dalefield zone substation, and create a back-feed supply to Coronet Peak to Dalefield, which will provide electricity supply to either zone substation in the event of a power outage.
Aurora Energy is New Zealand’s seventh largest electricity network by customer connections, supplying electricity to over 93,500 homes, farms and businesses in Dunedin, Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dunedin City Holdings Limited, owned by the Dunedin City Council.
More information can be found on the company's website.
