A greenfield site between Hay and Jerilderie has been transformed into a world-class substation critical to delivering new renewable power to the national grid and accelerating Australia’s clean energy transition.

The small rural locality of Bundure, 33 kilometres north east of Jerilderie, is home to the new Dinawan substation, which will play a vital role in bringing cleaner and cheaper energy to households and businesses as part of Australia’s largest transmission project EnergyConnect. The advanced substation sits at the junction of a new 375 kilometre, dual circuit 330kV transmission line from Buronga and a 160 kilometre, dual circuit 500kV transmission line from Wagga Wagga. It will help deliver new solar and wind generation to consumers. “The nation-critical EnergyConnect project will increase renewable energy sharing between NSW, Victoria and South Australia, putting downward pressure on energy bills and helping Australia meet its net zero targets,” EnergyConnect Program Director John Burke said. “The Dinawan substation will integrate new solar and wind generation from the NSW Government’s South West Renewable Energy Zone into the National Electricity Market, delivering more affordable and sustainable electricity to households and businesses. “The substation will also connect to the proposed new interconnector between NSW and Victoria, VNI West, resulting in greater energy reliability and security for the two states. “Named after the Wiradjuri people’s word for emu, Dinawan substation is four hectares in size, equivalent to six soccer f ields, and home to sophisticated electrical equipment from around the world. “The remoteness of the location has provided a significant logistical challenge in bringing in hundreds of skilled workers and delivering large-scale materials and heavy machinery to site. “I am pleased to say that Transgrid and our construction partner Elecnor Australia are finalising construction of the substation. “The focus will then move to pre commissioning works and testing of equipment before energisation. “Since taking steps to optimise project delivery in the long-term interests of consumers, we have achieved significant progress in construction of EnergyConnect which is now more than 90 per cent complete and on schedule to be finished in 2026.” More than 750 people have worked on the substation to date, with construction including 275,000 cubic metres of fill to create the bench, equivalent to 27,500 standard tipper truck loads and 6,820 cubic metrrs of concrete for foundations, equal to 1,137 average concrete truck loads. The facility also houses two 120MVAr synchronous condensers, weighing 300 tonnes each, installed in a 60m long, 1,200m2 machine hall. These large spinning machines will help maintain voltage stability on the transmission network and provide system resilience services such as inertia. Four shunt reactors and two capacitor banks will increase the power system efficiency by stabilising voltages and reducing energy losses in the transmission network. “We are proud to be delivering this sophisticated and world-class substation at Dinawan which will play a strategic role in the network,” Elecnor Australia’s EnergyConnect Project Director Felipe Delgado said. “Dinawan substation has been built from the ground up and the scale and engineering with NSW Rural Fire Service complexity of this substation is a testament to the skills of the 250-strong Elecnor workforce who live and work at this greenfield site. “Elecnor and its delivery partners at the Dinawan substation work across civil, structural, mechanical and electrical disciplines to integrate highly specialised equipment from around the world including synchronous condensers, capacitor banks and shunt reactors.”