McMinnville has approved the issuance of $30 million in bonds for the McMinnville Electric System to build an additional substation and upgrade current substations.
McMinnville Electric System CEO Brittany Davis said the new substation will be built off of Old Smithville Road near Walmart. Davis said a third substation is needed as the growing population is increasing the demand for electricity.
“If we took a substation out right now to feed the entire system off the other, it’s conditional,” Davis said. “It’s based off of temperature outside, so we can only do it certain times of the year and that’s just not really a good model to keep.”
Davis said the plan is to not spend the entire $30 million on the improvements. Davis said the bonds will be paid back with electric revenues.
“We are in a really good position to do this right now,” Davis said. “MES has not borrowed money in I want to say it was somewhere around 25 years, so we have a healthy backbone going into it and we are really excited about it. Reliability is important for our customers and for the city.”
Davis said the two current substations were both built about 50 years ago. Davis said upgrades would consist of new transformers, new relaying, and new substation breakers.
“West substation is older than the East, and it will be like a ground up rebuild,” Davis said. “East substation is I guess, technically I would just consider it more like substation upgrades. Obviously, going to get a new power transformer. The breakers, like the breakers that feed the distribution system, they have been replaced. That is actually the only piece that has been replaced and they were replaced maybe five or so years ago. So we will keep those obviously but that is the sort of thing that we will be doing.”
Davis said building the third substation will be the first order of business since the current substations would have to be turned off to make the upgrades. Davis said she expects the new transformers to arrive three to three and a half years from now.
Davis said the system has to receive permission to acquire the bonds form the city because the company’s board is appointed by mayor of McMinnville.
