We’re preparing for a climate-resilient and decarbonised future. We’re expanding and evolving the network to enable decarbonisation, improve our resilience to climate change related weather impacts and support the rapid growth and demand for renewable energy.
We undertake significant early planning to determine how to increase transmission network capacity to cater for future investment and growth.
We’re currently reviewing our Land Development Process to understand challenges and opportunities, and have commenced stakeholder engagement. Our Land Development and Sales teams have been working to improve design timeframes and are keeping in regular contact with customers to establish priorities and accelerate critical projects.
As part of this review, we’ve identified an opportunity to provide flexibility and clearer expectations when handing over newly constructed electricity infrastructure to us.
Allocation and access to a Project Network Officer
We will now verify project handover dates taken from the completed Construction Administration Package (CAP) prior to project allocation activities. We‘ll aim to allocate a Project Network Officer (PNO) to engage with the customer between 6-8 weeks before the agreed handover date. This will allow greater lead time for both the Installation Contractor and the PNO to work collaboratively towards a successful and coordinated project handover.
Requirements for a successful handover
If you’re an Installation Contractor, you can find the requirements and process for a successful coordinated handover in our Underground Distribution Scheme (UDS 6.2.2).
Key requirement – We require a minimum of 10 working days to process and verify handover documentation. Handover documentation needs to be submitted before the handover booking is made. For audit and tracking purposes, handover requests must be made in writing to the assigned PNO.
Key requirement – For all installed assets, handover requests must include all relevant as-constructed and testing data, which is being submitted via the Western Power online portal. These include but are not limited to:
- Transformers and Switchgear Cables
- Pillars and Pits
- Streetlights
- LV Kiosks
Where the submitted data is incomplete, we may need an additional 10 working days for verification and booking.
Where new cables are being installed to interface with existing cables or the overhead network, a minimum of 1.5m cable overlap is required and should be left to allow for sufficient testing of the cable and cutting to suit the joint or termination location.
Key requirement – It’s the Site Superintendent’s or Electrical Consultant’s accountability to carry out final verification of the installation before requesting handover from Western Power. We often identify assets, such as pillars, that have been incorrectly located but not identified at the time of inspection – even though the “Electrical Assets Infrastructure Pre-handover Site Inspection” document has been signed off as complete.
Summary
The above operational changes and requirements apply to all projects that are not scheduled for completion as at April 2023.
We have a range of supporting documentation including the UDS available on our electrical consultant page.