Frontline Electrical were engaged to work on Australia’s largest tin mine – the Renison Mine in the remote Northwest Tasmania to upgrade the Electrical Supply System to the fully operational underground mine that is servicing over 30km of underground tunnels and infrastructure, most of which was unchanged from installation in the 1950-60s. Works involved a full design, construction and commissioning of the original 44KV switchyard with new reticulation running to various areas across the mine which included the installation of two new 7.5 MVA transformers, one 3  x 5 MVA transformer, main breakers, H/V metering systems and a brand new switch/control room. The upgrading of all electrical protection digital relays and all the site cabling, support systems and associated reticulation.

The construction phase of the project involved the restringing of a 44kV copper busbar over three 12-hour shifts, with critical cutovers enabling the underground section of the mine to continue production during the night shift period. The job involved installing 106 unique insulators airfreighted from Shanghai as well as locally sourced insulators supplied by TasNetworks and other suppliers and re-energising of the system at the end of each cutover so that critical dewatering and ventilation equipment could continue servicing underground areas employees.