The Palmerston North CBD is the second-largest central business district we serve, and our largest exclusively underground network. We’ve been working on five projects for the Palmerston North community to expand, renew and rebalance our assets and ensure our customers have continued security of power supply.

Those projects are:

• Construction of a new substation on the corner of Linton and Ferguson Sts

• Installation of a second transformer at the new substation

• Construction of a new indoor 33kV switchroom at our Linton substation

• Construction of two new underground circuits from Linton substation to the new Ferguson St substation

• Installation of larger capacity cables between Pascal, Ferguson, Main and Keith Streets

To-date the success of these projects has been achieved through positive collaboration with stakeholders including the Palmerston North City Council (PNCC), the Crown, Iwi and the Ministry of Education. For instance, construction of a temporary overhead line to provide security of supply while end-of-life cables between Keith and Main street were removed from service was permitted following consultation with the PNCC.