News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

CEC submits site plan application for Tollgate Substation

Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) submitted a site plan application on Friday to the Deschutes County Community Development Department for the construction of a $3 million upgrade to the Tollgate electrical distribution substation.

The upgrade will enable CEC to provide more reliable, cost-effective electric service to the 583 residential customers in the Tollgate and Crossroads communities served by the substation.

The substation is not popular with neighbors, who are concerned about the impact on their views and property values of the large new facility. CEC has indicated willingness to work with local residents to mitigate the visual impact of the facility.

"Our plan is to replace an old 12.5 MVA transformer with a new 25 MVA transformer. The old one is only capable of receiving power at 69 kilovolts (kv). With the new 25 MVA transformer, we will be able to switch over to 115 kv service," said Alan Guggenheim, director of member services at Central Electric.

The switchover to 115 kv service is necessary in order to meet increasing residential demand for electricity.

Winter peak load demand in Sisters increased 70 percent in 15 years, according to CEC reports. Peak load was 44 megawatts in 1993-94. It was 75 megawatts in 2007-08.

"We will not be able to meet future load growth with the current infrastructure. Bonneville Power Administration has announced that it will not continue to supply power at the existing 69-kv voltage. If we are to keep up with demand, we must replace the distribution network and substation equipment to operate at 115 kv," Guggenheim explained.

"With the county's approval, we can prepare the site this fall," said Guggenheim. "We hope to construct the distribution network and substation equipment in 2009. Then we could switch over from 69 kv to 115 kv service in 2010.

CEC representatives met with neighbors of the project on April 23, to explain the need and discuss options and alternatives.

"We incorporated many of their ideas into the plan we submitted to the county," Guggenheim said. "For instance, the upgraded substation, which will occupy 155-by-240 feet, will be fenced and screened. It will also be buffered from view with native landscaping, such as manzanita, Oregon grape, ponderosa and other pines.

"In response to residents concerns, this May and June we completed additional clean-up of vegetation debris and replanted ground cover in the vicinity of the substation," Guggenheim said. "Our plan is to maintain existing trees outside the substation with spacing consistent with county code and the standards of the National Electrical Safety Code. The substation will be fenced with chain link, but we are also including brown screening material to minimize visual impact."

CEC is considering creating a berm and has promised to screen the facility as much as possible.

"We are continuing to work with affected homeowners," Guggenheim said. "We also met with the U.S. Forest Service to plan a design that will reduce and minimize the risk of wildfire. The Forest Service has indicated its approval of the proposed substation design and siting based on these factors. The Forest Service concluded that the use of non-combustible steel would greatly reduce the risk of protecting the substation during a forest fire."

Brooks Resources Corporation sold CEC the triangle-shaped property - specifically for use as a distribution substation to serve Tollgate - in 1982 for $25,000.

CEC originally built the wooden support structures and installed the old transformer and equipment in 1991 to counteract underground power cable failures in Tollgate and Crossroads.

 

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