So much for a small station
THE locals living around rural Grahams Rd outside Pomona were told they were getting a power booster resembling the compact Yandina substation, about the size of shipping container.
It was designed to end the ongoing blackouts that plagued the Cooran, Pomona, Boreen Point, Kin Kin and Pinbarren areas.
The reality they stare at now is what local Celia Jones describes as "Chernobyl", and even the country-loving Energex project manager trying to "settle the horses" there, says he's seen nothing like it before.
But while the residents who met outside the supersized substation last Thursday with Energex project boss Graham Baldwin and his team are not happy with the power provider's end result, it's the Sunshine Coast Council they'd like to take a cattle prod to.
Ms Jones and about a dozen residents who gathered to hear about Energex's latest plans to try to screen what Mr Baldwin, a self-confessed "ex-carrot grower, potato farmer, cow milker" colourfully described as a "monstrosity", believe council failed to put their concerns before Energex when undertaking the development approval process.
Or as Mandy Harry, who lives beside the $11.7 million substation and a transformer she calls a "reactor" put it: "Council lay down like a dead dog".
Ms Jones and residents said they met with the council and were told that sealing Grahams Rd was likely to be one condition of the development approval. Energex said last week this was never discussed and there were no plans to share costs of any future 800m road sealing as was suggested to residents.
The power supplier believed that the amount of traffic the substation generated would not require this sort of road infrastructure contribution.
When Ms Jones said they were told by Energex that it would look like the Yandina substation, Mr Baldwin told the gathering he could understand how the Energex staff who first turned up on site would have told locals that.
"This is an exception to the rule," Mr Baldwin said.
"This is the first one of these I've ever done."
Mr Baldwin said the reason the substation was capable of supplying three times its eventual capacity for its supply network when commissioned possibly in late August, was to ensure reliability.
"People were sick and tired of lights going out for long periods of time any time it rained. We were copping a lot of flak. We had to do something," Mr Baldwin said.
He said the only power source for the substation meant to replace Black Mountain as the main supply source to the area were the overhead 132,000 volt lines.
"We have no 33,000 volt network around here."
As a result large scale switching equipment had to be installed on site.
One resident was concerned about possible future expansions on the 1.2ha Energex site.
"I'm just a little bit concerned about how much more it's going to grow? It's certainly grown a lot since the original (plans)."
