Mangawhai Central Substation

Location: Mangawhai Central

Investment: $11.2 million

Start Date: December 2022

Completion Date: March 2024

Providing for a growing community

With the historically small seaside settlement of Mangawhai expanding steadily in recent years, Northpower has constructed a brand-new substation in the area to meet the growing demand for electricity.

This new 15-megawatt substation is located within the Mangawhai Central development area. It consists of a modern tilt slab building housing all the electrical equipment and is designed to blend with the surroundings, including fresh landscaping and planting.

Providing now and into the future

The substation has been built with room to grow. It is initially powering 7,500 homes and providing backup to customers supplied from the Mangawhai North substation.

There is space within the building to house an additional transformer of 15 megawatts, enabling expanded capacity as Mangawhai grows.

Along with the substation, new high-voltage lines are being installed in the area, increasing the electricity supply’s reliability.

Keeping it local

Northpower worked closely with local hapū, Te Uri O Hau to appropriately acknowledge the history of the substation site, and the changing nature of the land use. The site of the Mangawhai Central substation was blessed by Te Uri O Hau before the first sod was turned.

The project was completed by Northpower with the help of local contractors, contributing to employment in the area.

Once the substation was completed, we held an open day, for locals to come and check it out. It was a great turnout with interested people and families taking the chance to see the inner workings of a new substation.

Minimising power outages to the community

To help avoid negative impacts and inconvenience to the Mangawhai community when livening the substation, we utilised some switching to back feed customers where possible.

We had two widespread planned power outages to connect and liven the new lines and substation but were able to do this overnight to reduce the impact on our valued Mangawhai customers.