Endeavour Energy has developed a fully digitised electricity substation, potentially saving the company millions. 

Endeavour Energy has built its first major digital substation at South Erskine Park, incorporating digital protection and control. 

Fibre optics and supervised digital signals have replaced almost all of the traditional copper wiring, meaning quicker deployment, cheaper operation and a much simpler design, reducing construction time down to just 15 months from the usual three years.

The company says its digital shift should provide flexibility for the network to adapt as more and more home solar systems and batteries are connected. 

The savings are “in the order of about 25 percent per substation project, and the typical substation might be in the vicinity of $20 million or $25 million,” the company’s secondary systems manager Matthew Browne has told iTnews.

He said the new system will be better at responding to the ongoing newable energy transition. 

“We’re starting to get to the point now where we've got feeders with reverse power flows, which we've never had before, as a result of things like rooftop solar,” Mr Browne said. 

“The digital substation facilitates these types of unforeseeable future changes to the grid to be measured.

“We're looking at building potentially, I think, about 15 new substations over the next sort of decade or so. 

“We want a state-of-the-art grid for this new supply system out here that's going to be more adaptable to the changing future grid needs and provide low cost to customers.”