A vacant lot across the railroad tracks from the intersection of South Tower Avenue and West Summa Street will be the site of the Salzer Substation operated by Centralia City Light. Construction is set to begin next year.
The Centralia City Council approved a bid award of $2,327,187.30 for the Salzer Substation construction project at the city council meeting on Tuesday night.
The engineer estimated the cost to be $2.5 million. Titan Electric, Inc. bid $2,327,187, making it 7 percent under the bid estimate. The transformer will be a separate cost.
“This substation was approved in the November 27, 2018 budget approval meeting last year,” said Norton addressing the council before their vote.
The Salzer Substation would provide either primary or emergency supply to Providence Centralia Hospital as well as many areas in downtown Centralia including: City Hall, Centralia Community College, the Centralia Emergency Operations Center, Centralia downtown business district, Riverside Fire Authority’s Pearl Street station, and three elementary schools. The substation will also be in a location that will allow it to provide power to the proposed Centralia Station project, which is expected to include a WinCo.
There are currently five Centralia City Light substations — North Port, Fords Prairie, Cooks Hill, Zimmerman, and May Street. All but the May Street location are located on the west side of Interstate 5 and according to the City Light General Manager M.L. Norton, most of Centralia’s population lives on the east side of I-5. Since a majority of the people and emergency response centers are on the east side, “a new substation is vital to provide normal and emergency supply to all east-Centralia loads in the event lines crossing I-5 are out,” as stated in Norton’s presentation.
The Salzer Substation has an earthquake resistant design. Norton spoke about the Cascadia Earthquake that occured 319 years ago and it is estimated that there will be a plate subduction on the northwest coast of the U.S. every 250 years.
“We are due for another event,” said Norton when showing the council a diagram of plate movements off the Washington coast.
In the harshest conditions, possibly a cold winter, two substations need to survive the earthquake in order to provide power for the whole city. In average conditions only one substation needs to survive, Norton reported. Now the city will have a back up in the case of an earthquake.
The Saltzer Substation will adopt the same earthquake resistant design as the recently updated Fords Prairie Substation. The substation will also include earthquake resistant transmission lines. The substation will operate at 69,000 volts intically and be able to increase to 115,000.
