Mains Upgrades in Harkaway

Harkaway is a small hills village of 1011 people at 167 m, and every occupied dwelling at the 2021 Census was a separate house. Much of the land was once given over to dairy farming and grazing, so on rural-residential lots the supply can come a long way from the road, sometimes on overhead spans, sometimes underground. Replacing those consumer mains means choosing a cable size that suits the distance, because a long run loses voltage under heavy load.

AusNet Services is the distributor, and its approval is needed for any change to supply capacity or the meter. Australian Gas Networks reaches streets in Harkaway, and as owners electrify heating, cooking and hot water, demand on the house supply rises. Parts of Harkaway lie within a Bushfire Prone Area and a Bushfire Management Overlay, and owners in those parts sometimes pair a mains upgrade with a battery or a generator inlet so essential circuits can stay on during an outage. We work through the calculation, the approval and the meter change.