 PGE boosts our juice
Two corners of Washington County are receiving major upgrades in their
electrical service from Portland General Electric (PGE). The utility
is doubling the capacity of a Bethany area substation, adding two
new high capacity “feeder” lines and replacing two others that
serve homes from Oak Hills to the West Hills. PGE is also installing larger
wire between Hillsboro and Cornelius to improve reliability.
The feeder projects will increase service reliability for about
18,000 customers. Feeder lines are the “arterial roads” of the
power grid, delivering electricity from substations to the neighborhoods.
From there, they become smaller tap lines, the city streets of the system.
Bethany Substation will increase its total number of feeders from three to
five, while doubling the amount of power the station can send out.
PGE is also replacing two miles of feeder on Laidlaw and upper Saltzman
roads by this summer with higher capacity line. Another mile on Laidlaw
is scheduled for completion in 2006. Most of the lines head uphill
into the growing Forest Heights and Thompson Road areas. Another line will
increase service to the Oak Hills–Cedar Mill area.
“The project should reduce the most likely cause of outages in forested
areas – shorts created by tree limbs,” said Ron Slattery, the
project engineer. “We’re adding ‘tree wire’ on one
stretch of Laidlaw Road. That’s a power line covered with a plastic
coating so a windblown limb won’t short circuit the power line.” Reliability
also will increase because the improved power supply and increased
number of lines will make it easier to obtain back-up power should an outage
occur.
Substations take power from the big transmission lines, which are
the “freeways” of
the power grid. The substations reduce the voltage and then distribute
the electricity into the feeders, like spokes on a wheel.
Construction in the Bethany Substation, a new transormer, began
in October 2004 will be on-line this summer. Laying the related power
line may cause some traffic delays on Laidlaw.
The Bethany and Cornelius projects represent a combined investment
of $3.1 million. Each year, PGE spends about $180 million dollars
in maintaining and improving its system, including upgrades in
the distribution, transmission and power generation systems.
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