News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Overnight on September 16-17, Sisters will go dark as Central Electrical Cooperative (CEC) shuts down its system in the area to make a conversion to higher voltage.
The utility will explain its plans to the public in an informational meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 3, at Sisters Public Library.
CEC plans to convert electric power transmission to Sisters from 69,000 volts to 115,000 volts. The conversion requires a six-hour, planned power outage, affecting about 3,094 Sisters area residents. The outage is planned for 10 p.m., Tuesday, September 16 until 4 a.m., Wednesday, September 17, subject to heavy weather or events on the regional power grid beyond the control of the co-op.
The changeover is a major undertaking, according to CEC spokesman Alan Guggenheim.
"It's the most complicated thing a distribution utility does," he said. "It's a Class A engineering problem."
The outage is required so that Central Electric line crews can safely switch electric power service from the Bonneville Power Administration Substation in Redmond to the Sisters Substation. A similar conversion from 69,000-volt to 115,000-volt service is planned two days later, on September 18, for 1,428 residents of Eagle Ridge Phase III area, west of Eagle Crest.
The planned outage does not affect Tollgate and Black Butte Ranch substations where service will remain at 69,000 volts until they are converted to 115,000 volts in 2010. That conversion requires a new substation in Tollgate, plans for which go before Deschutes County on September 2.
Guggenheim said the dates and times for the shutdown were "chosen after much debate" so as to cause as little disruption as possible.
"We think we can get the work done in three or four hours, but who knows, Murphy's Law being what it is," he said.
Two weeks prior to the switch, CEC will mail outage notification letters to affected residents, primarily in Sisters and outlying areas of Indian Ford and Aspen Lakes, including portions of Plainview and Dry Canyon.
Guggenheim said that CEC crews will take advantage of the shutdown to jump on some maintenance tasks as well.
The service upgrade to Sisters and Eagle Ridge areas is part of BPA's multi-year $140 million strategy to meet the region's growing demand for electricity, Guggenheim said.
This upgrade will enable CEC to improve system reliability and provide for increased power demand by new and existing customers.
Attending the upcoming area meeting from Central Electric will be Alan Guggenheim, director of Member Services, Bob McConnell, manager of Operations and Engineering, Doug Ertner, senior manager of commercial accounts, and Don Lang, senior electrical engineer responsible for CEC's electric power system. For more information, contact Central Electric at 541-548-2144.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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