Improvements Boost Capacity and Service Reliability to Ensure Co-op Is Ready for the Future
By Dianna Troyer
For United Electric Co-op’s staff, upgrading substations and transmission lines last year was a complex puzzle.
To launch the Herculean task, the co-op’s engineering staff and line crews waited until peak electrical demand ended in late summer and set a goal of finishing before frigid January. They coordinated the deliveries of bulky transformers, weighing upward of 42 tons when energized, and accompanying equipment with operators who used towering cranes, bucket trucks, and other heavy equipment to move the infrastructure around.
“The projects our crews completed at 4 substations in that timeframe was unprecedented,” General Manager Michael Darrington says. “The work was a team effort. We’re grateful for all those who helped make it happen—consulting engineers, operational and transmission service partners, specialized contractors, local business partners, vendors, and involvement of other stakeholders.”
He says the improvements were needed to upgrade the local distribution grid to accommodate changing demands on the electrical system.
“Our goal is to improve system capacity, reliability, and safety,” Michael says. During the process, United Electric’s staff and crews also appreciated co-op members’ patience. At times during installation, necessary temporary outages occurred.
“We know how difficult and inconvenient power outages can be,” Michael says. “Ultimately, the new equipment will minimize the impact of future outages.”
Crews are still working on a new substation near Rupert and anticipate it will come online this summer.
“When that’s complete, this stage of our long-range plan will be accomplished,” Michael says.
The recent upgrades, valued at $5.5 million, will ensure the co-op can meet members’ electrical needs for the next 30 to 40 years.
“We take our responsibility as stewards of the system seriously to provide a return on investment,” Michael says. “These proactive projects are prudent investments of the co-op’s $20 million in assets and enable our members to have reliable and affordable power.”
Rapid Growth
Several years ago, the staff and United’s board of directors realized improvements would be needed due to a rapid increase in services.
“Based on growth of about 30% in the past 15 years, we knew our system needed more capacity,” says Trevor Parke, engineering and operations manager. “We can’t predict the future, but we know people and businesses will continue to move here.”
While the system has been maintained and improved during the past decade to accommodate that growth, more upgrades were required at several substations: Minico, the new Rural Substation, along with Starrh and Pacific, which are in the same yard west of Burley where industrial clients and an aquifer recharge pumping station rely on the co-op.
Michael says the timing was right financially to implement the improvements and also to incorporate recently developed technology in the grid to help crews restore power faster when outages occur.
“The longer we wait, the more prices will continue to increase for equipment, materials, and supplies of key components essential to utility operations,” he says. “The new transformers took more than a year to build in the United States. During that time, prices of components went up, too, so we didn’t know the exact price until the equipment was finally finished and shipped.”
Some of the cost of installed equipment was partially offset by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act through the Idaho Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources.
The substations have new circuit switchers, control houses, and larger transformers.
“The transformers we added give us increased capacity and the ability to have redundancy between substations,” Trevor says. “If 1 area is down, another substation can provide power. The new equipment also provides better protection of our system. We also installed new advanced relays and communication systems that respond quickly when a fault occurs on the power lines.”
Supply chain issues caused delays in equipment arrival, Trevor says.
“As a result, we had 3 projects going on at the same time,” he says. “Our window to do these projects is in the spring or fall. We hoped to have 2 of the projects completed in the spring of 2023, but they were pushed to the fall with the other project. This made the tasks harder to coordinate and accomplish with everything going on at the same time. Our crews did an outstanding job.”
Historic Upgrades for Line Crews
The substation upgrades were historic opportunities for line crew personnel that might come only once in a career, Operations Superintendent Wade Williams says.
“This is my 4th decade with United Electric, and this is the first time our line crews have ever done this type of work,” he says. “They assisted with the changing out of power transformers, the removal of high side bushings, along with switching and paralleling substations to accommodate the outages that were needed.”
In building the new substation near Rupert, crews “are becoming very familiar with the type of grounding grid and foundation it takes to complete such a project,” Wade says.
Trevor points out the new equipment enables the co-op to have standardized, interchangeable parts.
“It’s more cost-effective and more efficient to not have so many different kinds of spare parts,” he says.
The projects benefited neighboring utilities, too. Some purchased the equipment that United replaced.
“There are still many years left in the transformers we replaced, and they’re the size other local utilities need,” Trevor says. “Selling some of our assets brought value to them and offset costs for us.”
Whatever the future holds, Michael is confident that recent investments are well worth it.
“United Electric’s recent investments will accommodate the growth and new demands of the system while keeping rates as low as possible considering the current economic environment,” he says.