Chief Substation Operator Don Kerlee talks about the revenue meter Friday afternoon while inside the Meter-Clad Switch Gear Building at the Centralia Substation.
Centralia City Light General Manager, M.L. Norton, points out shock absorbers that protect the substation from earthquakes Friday afternoon at the Centralia Substation.
The new and improved substation is under construction Friday afternoon in Centralia.
Centralia City Light General Manager, M.L. Norton, points out shock absorbers that protect the substation from earthquakes Friday afternoon at the Centralia Substation.
Chief Substation Operator Don Kerlee, left, and Centralia City Light General Manager, M.L. Norton, talks about the inside of the Meter-Clad Switch Gear Building at the Centralia Substation.
Centralia City Light General Manager, M.L. Norton, talks about the cooling system Friday afternoon at the Centralia Substation.
Centralia City Light General Manager, M.L. Norton, points out curved cables that protect the substation from earthquakes Friday afternoon at the Centralia Substation.
A significant clue as to the future growth of Centralia can be found not at the construction site for a grocery distribution center spanning more than 30 acres, but behind a green fence across the street.
There, near the intersection of Galvin Road and Gallagher Road, work is wrapping up on upgrades to the Fords Prairie Substation operated by Centralia City Light meant to not only handle the 1.3 million square-foot warehouse expected to include hundreds of thousands of square footage used for round-the-clock refrigeration, but other future large-scale projects on the west side of the city.
Electrical loads that normally are routed through the Fords Prairie substation have been handled by the Zimmerman Substation on Johnson Road while the former has been turned off. Once the switch is flipped, Fords Prairie will have a transmission capacity of about 43 Mega Volt Amps (MVA), more than twice its previous mark.
“Along with the industrial growth, this allows us to better handle increased power usage during cold snaps,” City Light General Manager M.L. Norton said.
City Light rebuilt the substation in such a way that it can add a second transformer and switchgear apparatus to the existing property if warranted. Infrastructure such as a transmission pole and concrete foundation for a second transformer are in place and arranged so that, once the station is reenergized later this month, it won’t have to be shut down while a second transformer is added.
A spare circuit switch has been installed specifically for when development occurs on a large parcel of land across Gallagher Road from the substation.
“Another large load around four or five megawatts along with other growth at the Port (of Centralia), those can eat up a lot of power,” Norton said. “Our 20 MVA transformer was already carrying about 17 MVA.”
The new substation is not only future-proof when it comes to industrial development — steps were taken to better brace the crucial piece of city infrastructure against a potential Cascadia subduction zone earthquake.
A rupture on that fault line could cause catastrophic damage up and down the West Coast. The new transformer at Fords Prairie sits on a 12-inch thick concrete pad that rests atop bearings designed to absorb the brunt of the force generated by a major earthquake.
Flexible conductors attached to every connection point on power lines within the substation will also improve the chances the structure remains functional after the shaking stops, assuming the Bonneville Power Administration lines from which the substation receives its power supply remain intact as well.
“We didn’t want to have an earthquake take out what is going to be such a critical piece of equipment that would have a large lead time if we needed a bunch of parts,” said Dave Johnson, Engineering and Operations Manager for City Light. “The BPA is working to Harden up their station (near Chehalis) as well.”
Once work wraps up on the Fords Prairie rebuild, City Light will turn its efforts toward construction of a new substation near the intersection of Summa Street and Gold Street intended to be in use by the end of 2019.
Known as the Salzer substation, it will be built using the same specifications and basic design elements as the one at Fords Prairie, though without the components to add a second transformer.
A 1.5 mile long transmission line will connect Salzer with a tap point on the BPA transmission loop. The Centralia City Council recently approved a bid of about $340,000 for City Light to purchase 31 steel poles to construct the line from TransAmerican Power Products in Houston, Texas.
Current long-range plans call for the Zimmerman substation to be rebuilt in 2021 to match Fords Prairie and Salzer.
