About the project

This project was a huge undertaking, being the largest temporary power, rapid deployment and diesel powered grid connected generation job in Victoria’s history if not Australia’s. The peak load reached was 12.5MW, and during this 90 minute period every set was running at near full load.

Coates Hire involvement

Coates Hire were responsible for moving two 1400 KVA generators, from Queensland to Victoria, and a 1250 KVA generator from the East to meet the customer’s requirements.

A control system change was also undertaken on one of the 1400 KVAs generators to complement our fleet. This helped bolster Coates Hire’s position in the Utility Market sector.

The generators were then successfully synchronised with the state’s High Voltage Network, not just a normal Low Voltage network application. The industry has never had the capacity to achieve these results prior to dealing with Coates Hire, and to do it with one supplier was unheard of.

Earlier this year, Coates Hire South provided power to a quarter of Victoria’s North West during the Powercor Charlton Shutdown in Victoria.

The shutdown lasted for two operational days on and off with bump in/out commissioning periods, whilst major infrastructure upgrades and maintenance was carried out to the states grid network.

Coates’ team took on project ownership and provided onsite technical support. We also provided cross business unit assistance in the transportation of generators.