Customer Case Study:
The lifeline connecting the city’s suburbs, Melbourne’s iconic trams have been rolling through our streets since 1885. Yarra Trams, proudly operated by Australia’s leading provider of multi-modal transport Keolis Downer, have overseen the management of this much-loved network since November 2009. Working alongside the Victorian Government and Public Transport Victoria, they run in excess of 5,000 services each day, and enable 200 million passenger trips a year.
Beon Energy Solutions joined forces with Yarra Trams in 2016, retrofitting an existing substation building that was decommissioned from the HV supply in 1998. The new tram power substation now supplies an additional 1.97 MW of capacity to the tram network, connecting to Lygon Street, Brunswick East.
As well as contending with the limitations of working on a building with a heritage overlay, the structure had fallen into disrepair, becoming something of an unsightly mark on the local streetscape. Beon also had to work nimbly with legacy cables and pipes, in what was one of the first sites to run electrical power in Melbourne.
Beon worked extensively on strengthening the structure of the building while taking great care to preserve its heritage façade. Installing AC and DC switchboards, and a rectifier transformer has increased the resilience of Yarra Trams’ network and will help provide a more reliable tram service.
As Glen Thomson, General Manager Beon Energy Solutions, says, “We are really proud of the role we’ve played in building this critical piece of infrastructure which will be critical in providing additional power to the tram network. This project also had the added value of salvaging this historic site and improving the streetscape.”
