Benefits of updating substations
Posted by Jeph Novak on February 9, 2021
Wright-Hennepin (WH) recently rebuilt the Howard Lake Substation in 2020 to better serve its members. Substations in WH’s territory are frequently being built or improved upon in order to fulfill our vision statement: “To benefit our members, WH and its diversified businesses will outperform our competitors and sustain top 10 percent results in satisfaction, financial management, safety and reliability through 2022.” But what exactly does updating substations entail?
Substations are essential for the distribution of energy to the member-owners of the cooperative. Substations convert high voltage electricity from power plants into lower voltage levels suitable for distribution to homes and businesses. As energy demands increase, substations must keep up in order to prevent too much energy moving through a system that cannot support it. This can cause power outages and expensive repairs.
Updating substations is a process that typically takes a few months. In that time, the old substation gets a complete overhaul, increasing in size as well as electrical capacity. WH’s lineworkers backfeed the energy to other substations in the area to prevent members from losing power during the substation rebuild. Substations will often get new electronic-controlled equipment and new support, a new enclosure and updated electrical hardware to ensure optimal performance in safety and reliability.
WH updates substations across its service territory periodically to meet the growing needs of the member-owners. By updating and improving the grid, WH can continue to provide reliable power supply, as bigger substations are able to handle and distribute larger power demands and maintain a flexibility for growth for the future. After all, it is WH’s mission that all member-owners of the co-op receive affordable and reliable power.
Watch a time lapse of a WH substation rebuild.
WH updates substations in its service territory periodically to better serve its members. Learn more about WH substations.
