NECA names Victoria's best electricians and projects

The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) has recognised the best Victorian electrical and communications contractors at the annual electrical industry excellence awards. Seven companies across nine categories received the top state award. The winning projects in 2011 included the electrical, lighting, voice and data installations throughout AAMI Stadium, communication installations at the Teaching, Training and Research Facility (TTR) at Sunshine Hospital, bushfire recovery work at Mt Tassie Transmission Station and energy-efficient installations at Buildings 2, 4 and 6 of Riverside Quay.

The winning companies were chosen because of their commitment to excellence, significant engineering achievements and importantly, their ability to integrate many different technologies into the one project, said CEO of NECA Victoria Philip Green.

The winning companies and their projects are listed below:

Category - Domestic residence
A single residence project in the domestic sector where the applicant's contract value is less than $1 million.

Winner: L+O Technologies
Project: Private Residence in Somers
Why: L+O Technologies provided solutions for its client's every need from the ground up. This included the design, supply, installation, coordination and delivery of all electrical and communications works. The house has current innovative features including integrated alarms, ducted vacuum, Clipsal C-Bus, smart phone app, heating, cooling, security and energy-efficient lighting.

Category - Small contracting business
A small contractor, employing less than 10 technical employees, demonstrating a wide range of skills and may be a company or project based.

Winner: Grouts Electrical
Project: Mt Tassie Transmission Station
Why: The Mt Tassie Transmission Station was damaged during the Black Saturday 2009 bushfires. The station is responsible for most of the TV and radio transmission for Gippsland. Grouts Electrical delivered outstanding workmanship from the day following the bushfires through to the completely new electrical installations at the remote site.

Category - Environment and energy efficiency
A project where the design, product selection, lighting, processes or technologies have created an energy-efficient or sustainable installation and/or made a significant contribution to preservation of a site's natural environment.

Winner: MECA Electrical Services
Project: Buildings 2, 4 & 6 Riverside Quay
Why: MECA Electrical Services used a cabling system to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings at Riverside Quay. This included: 130 duct air temperature sensors, pipe water temperature sensors, static air pressure sensors and water differential pressure sensors were replaced or installed throughout the plant rooms and the tenanted floors.

Category - Occupational health and safety
A business, project or individual that has demonstrated commitment to achieving an optimal occupational health and safety environment.

Winner: O'Donnell Griffin
Project: Incident investigation process
Why: O'Donnell Griffin developed and implemented an incident investigation process that is used to investigate all significant incidents that result in injuries to employees or disruption to site operations. With the implementation of this new process, O'Donnell Griffin has achieved a lost time to injury rate of zero.

Category - Industrial project - small
An industrial project which may include, but is not limited to, undertakings of a civil, mining, high-voltage, manufacturing or process nature where the contract value is less than $2 million.

Winner: O'Donnell Griffin
Project: Crown - Generator step-up transformer refurbishment project
Why: During maintenance O'Donnell Griffin found cracks in the frames of six transformers. The scope was to remove and refurbish six step-up transformers, then to re-install and recommission them. This was a complex exercise as each transformer was refurbished one at a time and the work needed to be done at odd hours and in a tight time frame with no downtime.

Category - Industrial project - large
An industrial project which may include, but is not limited to, undertakings of a civil, mining, high-voltage, manufacturing or process nature where the contract value is greater than $2 million.

Winner: O'Donnell Griffin
Project: Telstra Clayton operations building upgrade - electrical installation
Why: The work required the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the operations building's mechanical and base building electrical services and associated equipment. All works and activities were to meet the critical dates as defined by the Project Manager. This project imposed a major challenge for O'Donnell Griffin organisation as it was a fully functional data hall and it was necessary to keep it operational for 24 hours per day and 365 days per year.

Category - Voice/Data project
A voice or data project of any contract value.

Winner: LANEC Services
Project: Sunshine Hospital - Teaching, Training and Research Facility (TTR)
Why: The design and installation of structured cable systems was completed by LANEC Services. This was the first project of its type to be completed in Victoria where data, security, CCTV, building management system and nurses call systems were installed using a structured cable allowing for a high level of improvement and integration to all systems it services. No more than 15 metres of cable is needed to connect any part of a work area to the nearest consolidation point, making it fast to deploy new systems.

Category - Commercial - small project
A commercial project where the applicant's contract value is less than $500,000.

Winner: Watters Electrical 
Project: Wodonga TAFE
Why: Watters faced many challenges on this project. The work comprised the general light and power, data cabling, security systems, emergency warning, CCTV and the electrical installation of the air conditioning throughout the building. The installation of automated systems allowed for the reduction of energy consumption by the TAFE.

Category - Commercial - large project
A commercial project where the applicant's contract value is greater than $2 million.

Winner: KLM Group
Project: AAMI Stadium
Why: This project was a major development for the soccer, rugby and rugby league stadium within the sporting precinct of Melbourne. Due to the unusual structure of the stadium, KLM Group was required to conceal cabling where possible. The unique canopy roof structure presented many difficult installation problems and the entire lighting system is fully automated and controlled by a Dynalite control system. This project involved an integrated installation of all of the electrical, data, voice and communications systems throughout the entire stadium.