Aurora Energy needed to replace ageing powerline towers and high voltage lines that spanned from Port Chalmers to Portobello, along with an aging submarine cable that was laid in 1947. The upgrade supplies 728 customers on the Peninsula, including Quarantine Island. Planning and design work started in December 2020. With the custom-fitted Patiki Barge travelling down from Picton to undertake the project. The large cables being loaded onto a flat rackThe high-voltage underground cables were shipped to New Zealand from China, where Icon Logistics then organised everything from heavy haulage, piloting, cranes to lift the cables and storage at their ATF site. One of the cables was so large and heavy, that at 18 tonnes, it didn’t fit inside a shipping container, but on a flat rack. Another cable came in an open roof 20-foot container. At that size, they require specialist low loading heavy haulage, swing lifts, along with multiple points requiring cranes to lift the cable drums.The other cable going in an open roof 20-foot containerTo meet the Patiki Barge, the cable had to be craned back onto a low loading heavy transport and taken to the wharf, once there it had to be craned onto the barge and then the serious business of laying the underwater power cable could begin.
Icon Logistics are proud to be part of a once-in-a-lifetime project to help improve the stunning natural landscape of Otago Harbour and help Aurora Energy provide safer and more reliable power. The crane placing the cable into a container
Watch this video by Aurora Energy of the cable being laid:
