We are increasingly receiving requests for information about design and installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging points from local councils. Having recently installed EV sites in several spots around regional Victoria, we have good knowledge of the products available to best suit different locations.

We can design and construct the charging point of supply and electrical site layout, including cable, conduit, transformer and charging station locations, determine appropriate circuit protection and also negotiate supply capacity with the electrical authority.

If your council is interested in investigating EV charging options for your municipality, please get in touch. We are happy to hold initial discussions anytime.

Please join us in welcoming Kayla George, our new Business Development Manager, to the Powerplant team. This is a key appointment for us and with extensive experience in energy utilities, metering, renewable energy and embedded networks we know Kayla will add great value to customers across all areas of our business.

She recently wrapped up 11+ years working with Select Solutions and Mondo, and brings a long list of achievements including delivery of several large solar generation projects and establishing Select Solutions embedded networks and sub-metering service. Outside of work she is a long-time volunteer with the CFA in her local area, spending many hours on the fire truck. 

 She has been looking forward to starting with us and the feeling is mutual! Welcome Kayla.

We are close to delivering extensive electrical relocations, lighting and new electrical assets for stages 1, 2 & 3 of Smiths Lane, an innovative Mirvac development in Clyde North.

A complex design with multiple separate projects running concurrently, several constructors onsite, and tight timeframes with multiple stages relying on road relocations, required a rigorous approach. Our PMs were regularly onsite, detailed preconstruction meetings were held with the constructors and Mirvac, and our detailing capabilities were utilised to compare actual with as-builts. Pre-audits for electrical and NBN were also key to ensuring minimal non compliances and achieving compliance to timeframe.

To date, the relocation of Thompsons Road has been completed, along with undergrounding/overhead removal for Smiths Lane, lighting, including signalised intersection, has been installed along with all telco assets.

Special mention to contractors on the project, UCS and Prasinus, who worked safely through difficult weather conditions and a tight timeframe to deliver the OH and undergrounding works.

These Covid times have tested all of us in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and helping each other through the ups and downs has been a focus for the Powerplant team. With the support of Amanda Purnell from Springfox, we took part in a series of high impact, practical learning sessions designed to measure and assess our individual resilience and teach us how to build on areas where we can be better.

Of great value to us was the resilience diagnostic report which gave each team member a point-in-time resilience score along with practical suggestions of ways to try and build resilience. Following three resilience sessions the diagnostic report will be repeated and next steps planned.

The sessions so far have been a great way for us to share our concerns, recognise we are all facing challenges and get some practical support.

Some questions we had were:
How to be focused during working from home and how to know when you should switch off/take a break?
Where does Powerplant team sit based on this assessment comparing to other businesses in the same industry, what are our strengths and weaknesses?
Tips to stop worrying about stuff we cannot control?
Suggestions for how we can create a separation between work and life after hours especially now as we work from home.
Any ideas on getting better night sleep?

Powerplant are delighted to introduce the newest member of the NSW team, Braj Dubey (MIEAust NER). Braj started with us as isolation laws were being put in place, which has made it difficult to give him a proper welcome but we are looking forward to spending time in the office together once it is safe to do so.

Braj comes to Powerplant as our NSW Design manager with 12 years experience in design & construction of overhead & underground electrical distribution network for electricity utilities across NSW. In a great step for our business, Powerplant will now be providing contestable design services to customers on the NSW electrical network, having been accredited by the NSW government as an Authorised Service Provider (ASP).

This is an exciting time of expansion for our business and we happy to have Braj guide the team from our Parramatta office.

Our strong relationships with Powercor along with innovative thinking by our project managers helped us deliver a huge 26 Statements of Compliance for Lendlease’s Atherstone development in 2019.

Powerplant’s Major Development Management services were instrumental in achieving these SOC’s as the majority of the stages were constructed concurrently. Regular strategic meetings with Powercor were held to ensure they were engaged and informed on stage progress. As always, mitigating risk to the client’s works schedule was the focus of our PM approach and we were able to implement some innovative strategies with our contractors to deliver compliance on time.  Powerplant has now implemented these and other outcomes from our URD Customer Improvement Program into our standard business process for the benefit of all customers.

The 481-hectare Atherstone Estate development 40km west of the Melbourne CBD has space for 4,500 homes and will house a population of 15,000, serviced by a new train station and retail and commercial areas.

We have successfully completed the first stage of a 66kV underground design for Major Road Projects Victoria’s M80 upgrade works. The complex design requires a staged approach due to existing site conditions and to ensure construction is practical and feasible. We have also been engaged for project management through the head constructor CPB.

The M80 Ring Road upgrade will widen and realign the freeway, widen on and off ramps and install a new smart freeway management system along 38km of road from Laverton North to Greensborough.

Our project management capability is growing – we now have 15 PMs accredited with Victorian distribution networks and 13 currently completing AIPM competency training. We also have project managers supporting Victorian Utilities in an embedded capacity.

Our leadership team includes several accredited project managers. General managers Jason Southby (Delivery) and Jean Gaied (Projects) are both AIPM accredited (Program Director), with extensive experience managing complex projects throughout their careers. Their PM experience includes AMI rollout, defence force projects and new technology.

We offer project management contracting services for any project – URD, lighting, asset relocation and customer networks – and can provide a solution where resourcing limitations, capacity or time constraints are hampering delivery of your project.

 

We are currently working on lighting designs for five sports ovals as part of Banyule City Council’s asset work programs. The design will include a sophisticated control system controlling 1500w Philips Optivision LED luminaires.

We also have capability to design lighting for recreational parks, building facades, public areas, car parks, forecourts, station platforms, structure illumination and any other architectural/feature lighting installations, including associated feature lighting required POS on VESI or AS3000 networks.

We are always happy to discuss how we can contribute to your project with feature lighting so please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss.

We continue to provide our services to the Level Crossing Removal Project, designing lighting for the level crossing removal at Evans Rd, Lyndhurst, one of nine crossings we are engaged to work on. This design is particularly complex, requiring cables to be designed through barriers, lighting poles mounted on barriers and conduits cast into the concrete barriers.

Evans Road has been closed at the level crossing since 2005 for community safety. Removing the level crossing will provide significant benefits to the community, including restoring local connections and access to important services, such as shops and schools.