NEW SUBSTATION TO BE TESTED NEXT WEEK – On Tuesday, Jan. 2, a crew from B&L Electric was hard at work in the frigid temperatures putting the finishing touches on the $709,000 electrical sub station behind the police station, the one that burned so spectacularly in September 2016. The B&L Electric foreman on the job Tuesday said their work should be completed later this week and the substation ready for testing next week. The foreman said he worked on building the substation, close to DairiConcepts, that has supplied electricity to the entire city since the fire. When he first got news of the catastrophe, he heard it was the newer substation and said, “Oh, no.” Then he heard that it was a particular part which failed and said, “That doesn’t sound right.”

It was the foresight of City Manager Bruce Rogers; Eric McPeak, the utility director at the time; and the city council which kept the substation fire from being a disaster for El Dorado Springs. In 2006, they had B&L install a 12/15/20-25 transformer, near DairiConcepts, which could carry the city’s peak voltage of 11-12.5 megawatts. Instead of being without power for months, the electricity was off for up to three hours in September 2016. The new unit will have a capacity of 13/18-22 megawatts.

The B&L foreman said B&L has done all the work except placing the transformer. B&L built all the metal super structures and replaced two big electrical poles.

Engineering on the new substation added about another $100,000 to the cost.