St Ives Shopping Village

SCOPE:

• Electrical

SUMMARY: BSE was engaged to design, tender, and project manage the replacement of the two main switchboards at St Ives Shopping Village. The challenge? Maintaining trading operations throughout the changeover process. St Ives Shopping Village is a 17,475 sqm shopping centre, triple anchored by Woolworths, Coles, and Harris Farm Markets, located on Sydney’s north shore. The centre is ranked number one in terms of sales performance in Shopping Centre News’ Mini Guns category, which ranks centres with gross leasable area of between 6,000 and 20,000 sqm.

OVERVIEW

St Ives Shopping Village is a 17,475 sqm shopping centre, triple anchored by Woolworths, Coles, and Harris Farm Markets, located on Sydney’s north shore. The centre is ranked number one in terms of sales performance in Shopping Centre News’ Mini Guns category, which ranks centres with gross leasable area of between 6,000 and 20,000 sqm. With $264 million in annual turnover, the pressure was on to deliver the upgrade with minimal interruptions.

SCOPE DELIVERED

BSE was engaged to design, tender, and project manage the replacement of the two main switchboards at St Ives Shopping Village. The challenge? Maintaining trading operations throughout the changeover process.

Being an active shopping centre, the transition was carefully programmed and closely coordinated with Centre Management and affected tenants. A further complication was the need to maintain backup support for critical systems. To deliver extra value with this switchboard upgrade, a new 600 kWe solar PV system was integrated to enhance operational efficiency.

As the site’s architecture did not allow for the construction of a new main switchroom, all works had to be designed and programmed for progressive switchboard transfers within the existing switchroom. Ausgrid was required to shut down the substation to allow connection of the new fire-rated consumer mains.

The upgrades were essential as the existing switchboards could no longer meet the changing demands of retailers, limiting the centre’s ability to attract new tenants. While the 5,000 A supply from Ausgrid’s substation was adequate, BSE reconfigured the distribution to provide greater supply capacity to retail sections while maintaining baseline load for common services.

The switchboard changeover works were successfully delivered by JSG Electrical.

PROJECT RESULTS

BSE is proud to have worked on this vital community hub, helping ensure that St Ives Shopping Village continues to meet the needs of shoppers and its current and future tenants.

Main Image Courtesy of SISVNSW