The new and improved Fords Prairie substation in Centralia became operational late last week.
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.
Centralia City Light successfully brought its new and improved Fords Prairie substation online Thursday, more than doubling the transmission capacity of its infrastructure that will be responsible for handling the outsized loads brought on by development at the Port of Centralia.
City workers first tried to switch on the rebuilt substation northwest of downtown Centralia on Oct. 19, but an equipment failure caused a widespread power outage instead. With that fixed, the power grid is equipped to handle the five mega volt amps expected to be needed to power the grocery warehouse under construction at the port as well as cold snaps that would stress the previous transformer’s capacity of about 20 MVA.
The new transformer carries a capacity of 43 MVA and sits on an earthquake-resistant concrete pad. The substation also has space for a second transformer to be added if future development of the area requires a larger power bank.
“What we have out there right now is well suited for its purpose,” City Light General Manager M.L. Norton said. “It’s fairly easy to add the second transformer if the load grows to that extent, since we’re equipped to do that if it’s needed years in the future.”
With the Fords Prairie project completed, City Light will turn its attention to constructing a new substation near the railroad tracks between South Tower Avenue and South Gold Street.
The so-called Salzer Substation will be nearly identical to the renovated Fords Prairie model, without space for a second transformer.
Construction on the vacant lot at the 201 E. Summa St. address is expected to begin in May 2019 with the goal of putting that substation online by the end of the year.
“It will give us an earthquake-resistant transformer on either side of Interstate 5,” Norton said. “There was a deadline for the Fords Prairie one because of the weather, the potential for cold snaps in October and November, but we don’t face those same deadlines with Salzer. There’s sufficient capacity in that area now, and the Centralia Station project has made limited progress, so it isn’t pushing us at this point.”
