MADISON — State utility regulators last week approved construction of a $1.63 million electric substation for the city of Brodhead, providing back up for its current substation which hasn’t been taken out of service for routine maintenance since 1994.
The new substation will be built on the city’s west side without an expected increase in electric rates, Utility Superintendent Jeff Peterson said.
“We’ve been anticipating this for years and have been setting money aside. It was just a matter of when to pull the trigger on the project,” he said.
Construction isn’t expected to be completed the end of 2021, giving the utility another two years to accumulate more revenue, Peterson said.
The Public Service Commission approving the project on March 26 was a necessary step in the process that now changes to completing the final design of the substation and bidding the transformers and associated equipment, which could take another six to eight months, Peterson said.
“I don’t know what the COVID-19 will do to the timetable at this point,” Peterson wrote Tuesday in an emailed response to questions about the project.
The new substation would be located on the south side of 11th St., on city owned property, approximately 350 feet west of 5th Ave.
The land has been used for equipment and material storage.
The city is served by an aging 4.16 kilovolt system. A 12.47 kilovolt substation was built in 1994 to serve the needs of a Stoughton Trailers, Inc. manufacturing plant.
Instead of just replacing older equipment the city concluded that it was a better investment in its future to add a second 12.47 kv substation. That allows the existing 12.47 kv substation to be taken out of service for maintenance, and both substations can back either one up if needed, according to the PSC order.
The new substation allows the city to eventually change completely over to 12.47 kv distribution system from 4.16 kv, which offers reliable power to current customers and capacity for growth, according to Peterson.
The existing 12.47 kv substation has had to operate continuously since 1994, but fortunately in the past 10 years only two “disturbances” have occurred:
August 4, 2013 when about 900 customers were without power for about six hours and June 17, 2014 when a storm caused a city-wide outage for about 14.5 hours.
Typically, about six outages occurred annually which normally are limited to a single customer who has their power restored after a short time period, according to Forster Electrical Engineering, consulting engineers for the substation project.
Forster’s study concluded that there was no viable alternative to constructing a new substation. The PSC agreed.
“Energy efficiency measures cannot replace the need to increase the reliability of Brodhead’s electric system. In addition, energy efficiency and alternative sources of supply would not replace the need to serve the customers connected to its aged and sometimes obsolete distribution equipment. No special circumstances exist that would support a conclusion that additional conservation activities, renewable resources, or any other energy priorities listed in (state statutes) would be a cost-effective alternative to the proposed project,” according to the PSC order.