St Louis Estate in Claremont is adding a new multi-residential development of 24 three-bedroom apartments across three buildings, over a basement with 52 car bays — inside an existing, fully occupied estate.
The brief
Aurum is delivering the electrical and low-voltage services design for the new development, plus the forward works needed to make it possible:
- Relocation of the authority substation
- A new site main switchboard sized for the existing estate, the new building and the future masterplan
- Transfer of all existing estate supplies to the new infrastructure
- Embedded metering, solar PV and EV charging readiness
- Lighting, emergency lighting, fibre, MATV, security and fire systems for the new building
The challenge
The estate’s live 1 MVA district substation and main switchboard sit directly on the excavation footprint. They supply residents’ homes, the estate’s administration and communal buildings — and neighbouring Claremont properties. Nothing can be demolished until every supply has been moved, and residents can’t simply be switched off for days.
The solution
Build the new supply in parallel. A new 2 × 1,000 kVA indoor substation and main switchboard are built where an existing garage is demolished, while the old substation keeps running. Duct routes are kept outside the excavation zone.
Prove before you cut. Every outgoing circuit is insulation-tested and load-logged for a week before transfer, so problems are found in advance, not during an outage.
Transfer one supply at a time. Each circuit moves to the new switchboard in a weekday window of four hours or less. A trial transfer goes first, critical buildings are supported by a standby generator, and fire panels and emergency lighting are checked after every transfer.
Resident-first controls. Residents receive at least seven days’ notice, and works don’t proceed on extreme heat or total fire ban days. A register of residents relying on powered medical equipment is maintained throughout.
Certified clear before demolition. Aurum certifies the zone electrically clear before the old infrastructure is removed.
The outcome
- A construction site cleared of live HV infrastructure without a prolonged estate outage
- New supply capacity for the development and the estate’s future masterplan
- A repeatable methodology for redeveloping occupied sites
