Repairs to Ephrata substation to begin in July

EPHRATA — The Grant County PUD substation in Ephrata that suffered severe damage in February will be rebuilt, and the project should be finished by October.

The substation was damaged in an explosion that started in transmission lines Feb. 17. Transmission lines and the substation are equipped with circuit breakers in the event of an incident, but a key component of the system had been turned off, a result of what the subsequent investigation determined was human error.

Utility district officials had considered moving the substation, but decided to repair it where it is, said PUD engineer Ty Ehrman during a review of the accident investigation. Russ Seller of the PUD updated utility district commissioners on the rebuilding process at the regular commission meeting Tuesday.

“Most of the damage happened out in the yard,” Seller explained. “Fortunately the control house survived intact, which takes a lot of effort out of the rebuild.” Utility district staff has completed an initial survey and determined what needs to be fixed, with the repair plan currently under preparation.

Construction is scheduled to begin in July, with the goal of finishing in October.

Commissioner Terry Brewer asked if the repair plan included a new transformer. “It does,” Seller commented, and will use a transformer the PUD already had on hand as a spare, “which is good, because that’s about a year lead time (to build).”

“What are we looking to do with spares in the future?” Brewer asked.

General manager Kevin Nordt said district officials plan to buy a new backup transformer. One recommendation from the investigation is “a very thorough programmatic review” of existing distribution systems, identifying which parts are critical and should have backups on hand, Nordt added.

Repairs to the Ephrata substation will be the last project in a two-year trial of a new way to build large PUD projects like substations. District officials decided to try the “design-build” process to speed up substation construction.

The process did speed up construction, but the projects are running over budget.

Utility district officials decided to try something new because there was a big backlog of substation projects. “We were to the point where new customers would call and we were having to tell them, ‘you’re five to six years out,’” he said. “We weren’t satisfied with that.”

The design-build method cut about half from the construction time, Seller said. Construction began in June 2016 and should be completed by August, with the exception of repairing the Ephrata substation. Construction crews upgraded the Nelson Road and Peninsula substations in Moses Lake and rebuilt the Babcock, Winchester and Coulee City substations. The project also includes two new substations in Quincy, Cloudview and Quincy Plains.

Originally construction of the seven substations was budgeted at $23.9 million but construction has run about $477,600 over budget, with another $300,000 extra cost anticipated, Seller said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columibabasinherald.com.