In the control house of the Toledo Substation, Central Lincoln PUD board member Larkin Kaliher, of Toledo, remotely closes a 69,000-volt circuit breaker, with the help of Chan Christensen, Central Lincoln’s Assistant Distribution and Operations Supervisor. (Courtesy photo)

$1.2 million project converts site to ‘smart-grid’



The Central Lincoln People’s Utility District energized its newly modernized “smart grid substation” near downtown Toledo on Friday, in festivities that included Central Lincoln Board Member Larkin Kaliher, General Manager Paul Davies, County Commissioners Bill Hall and Terry Thompson, and City of Toledo City Councilor Mary Young, City Manager Michelle Amberg, and City Events Coordinator Celeste Mathews.

Central Lincoln planners and engineers spent four years redesigning the Toledo Substation. Area contractors, along with some 25 Central Lincoln workers, were involved - from the utility’s engineering division to its meter relay, communications, and substation shops, as well as operations personnel. The effort even included a student intern from Oregon State University.

The Toledo Substation is 41 years old, and the cost of its rebuilding was $1.2 million, including new transmission lines and higher-strength steel transmission poles.

“Our Toledo substation had been traditionally a single-purpose substation, providing power to local residential, commercial, and industrial customers,” explained Bruce Lovelin, Central Lincoln’s chief engineer and manager of systems engineering. “Now it is a ‘smart grid substation,’ allowing automatic switching or ‘self healing’ of our area transmission grid. This will improve reliability from Lincoln Beach to Yachats and, of course, to Toledo. Thanks to some great staff at Central Lincoln, we were able to upgrade the substation so well it will provide benefits to our customers for many years to come.”

Central Lincoln workers also elevated the Toledo Substation ground level by four feet and put in appropriate drainage pipes, making the substation much less vulnerable to flooding.

The substation rebuild is part of the PUD’s use of “smart technology,” which began in 1981 with the use of microwave communications and electronic relays, and included the installation of fiber optic cable starting in 1994 and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), which uses computers and control devices to allow the utility to better monitor and control electricity use and flow.

“Central Lincoln had been working with these technologies long before the term ‘smart grid’ became popular,” said Central Lincoln General Manager Paul Davies. “We are always trying to improve on our 99 percent reliability rate and on our customer service. This investment in Toledo is part of that.”

Central Lincoln PUD is Oregon’s fourth largest electric utility, serving around 700 square miles and approximately 83,500 people in portions of Douglas, Coos, Lane, and Lincoln counties. Central Lincoln is not-for-profit and is publicly-owned. It was created in 1940 by voters to serve the public.