Powerlink Queensland has signed a collaboration agreement with French company RTE international (RTEi) to provide consultancy services for live substation works across the Asia Pacific region.
Powerlink was the first Australian transmission utility to adopt live substation works in 2001 and RTEi are long-standing world leaders who continue to provide methodology and licensing to Powerlink for this innovative practice.
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Under this new agreement, Powerlink and RTE international can now collaborate to provide engineering consultancy services to work on live substations on transmission networks to more than 20 countries across the Asia Pacific region.
Powerlink chief operating officer Gary Edwards said there were significant advantages to this highly specialised work practice.
“The innovation of live substation work methodologies allows us to ensure the safe, cost-effective, and reliable performance of the transmission network. It also delivers efficiencies by removing the need for planned outages,” he said.
“Our team of highly skilled experts have been conducting this work since 2001, which allows the transmission network to remain ‘live’ while critical works are being completed and reducing potential impacts on customers.
“We pride ourselves on being the only Australian transmission company able to do this type of highly specialised work, with strict assessments, equipment and protections in place to safely complete the most complex of jobs.
“I am proud RTEi have put their ongoing trust in our expertise toward sharing our combined knowledge with other utilities across the Asia Pacific region.”
RTE CEO Veronika Milewski said, “This agreement is symbolic of our close and long-standing working relationship.
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“RTE international and Powerlink have been leading providers of high voltage transmission network services for many years and this agreement gives access to the industry’s best technical experts.”
“We look forward to the evolution of our relationship and the expansion of our business and expertise to others within the Asia-Pacific region.”
