58 | “This project renews an asset thousands of customers depend on, and it does it before it fails rather than after. That is the difference between planned investment and reactive repair, and it is a difference our customers pay for either way.” Aurora Energy INFRASTRUCTURE Ensuring growth capacity Aurora Energy has completed a major electricity infrastructure project in Dunedin, replacing two ageing 33 kV cables between the Kaikorai Valley zone substation and Transpower’s Halfway Bush Grid Exit Point. T T Aimee Wilson Aurora Energy has completed a major electricity infrastructure project in Dunedin, replacing two ageing 33 kV cables between the Kaikorai Valley zone substation and Transpower’s Halfway Bush Grid Exit Point — where power from the national grid enters the city’s network. The six-month project was completed in May 2026, on programme and within budget, and involved contractors negotiating busy commercial and residential areas, crossing two major waterways, and working through some of the city’s most congested traffic routes. The new 3.15km underground cable has improved the security of electricity supply for more than 3,300 customers who are fed off the Kaikorai Valley zone substation. The cables being replaced had reached the end of their serviceable life, and part of the route still relied on a cable tray built across the Fraser Stream in the 1960s. Renewing them now means Aurora Energy can lose one circuit to a fault or for planned maintenance and keep the lights on for the surrounding suburbs, rather than leaving thousands of homes and businesses waiting while a repair is made on aging cable. Aurora Energy’s service delivery general manager Richard Starkey said the investment was as much about Dunedin’s future as its present. “Dunedin has real ambition as a centre for technology and innovation, and as a city where homes, vehicles and businesses are steadily electrifying. All of that runs on the network and our job is to make sure capacity and reliability are never the thing that holds the city back. “This project renews an asset thousands of customers depend on, and it does it before it fails rather than after. That is the difference between planned investment and reactive repair, and it is a difference our customers pay for either way.” The Kaikorai Valley work sits within a wider Dunedin investment programme. It follows the completion of Aurora Energy’s five-year, $560 million customised price-quality path, a sustained programme of renewal across Dunedin, Central Otago/Wānaka and Queenstown Lakes that has materially strengthened the safety and resilience of the network. Aurora Energy project manager Tony Hannagan said there were plenty of terrain and traffic challenges along the way, including replacement of the old cable tray across the Fraser Stream, with a bridge that was more fit for purpose. “Through a robust investigation phase, we identified early on there weren’t many options to get to where we needed to go.” With 80 percent of the route going through commercial and residential areas, there was a significant amount of traffic management along Kaikorai Valley Road, including the rush of the school runs, that had to be negotiated. “It was about creating the least amount of impact,” Tony says, which in some cases meant contractors were working through the night when there was not so much disruption to residents and businesses. A key element of the project was the use of directional drilling through Kempthorne Place, which reduced the need for excavation and was less intrusive for local residents. Tony said there was a 3m-wide corridor that cut through residents’ properties, but the drilling meant they didn’t encroach in residents’ backyards, and most of the work was unseen. “So, the impact was very minor in terms of noise, and it went reasonably well considering we were working on the side of a steep bank. It reduced a lot of time, effort and environmental issues.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=