Public Notice
Wilton Electrical Substation Project Sets Cutover Dates
February 7, 2008
Major milestones will take place during 2008 in the construction of the new Wilton electrical substation. Northeast Utilities has informed the town that some of the steps will require cutting power on the utility transmission lines. However, the switchovers should not involve more than a momentary interruption to electrical service in Wilton, according to the utility.
“We do everything in our power to do ‘live’ transfer. You won’t even see it,” said Chris Swan, director of municipal relations at Northeast Utilities.
Activating the Wilton substation, located off Old Danbury Road, will involve cutting power on the high voltage transmission lines to allow workers access to the equipment. These disconnections will happen during two periods, March 2-5 and April 28 – May 9. Other construction will happen through the summer. The project is on track for switching Wilton’s power supply over to the new substation by the end of the year.
Swan said that the new substation will be less vulnerable to outages caused by winter weather.
Here are the details of switchovers, as supplied by Northeast Utilities:
Note: The first two 'outages' will not have any effect on any circuits supplying customers in Wilton. They will strictly be done for worker safety along the MetroNorth railroad tracks behind the new substation, to permit the installation and cutover of high voltage, 115 kV lines, into the new substation equipment. This will then prepare the substation site for final transfer of load over to the new equipment, which typically is done live, as you wrote, to avoid anything but a possible 'momentary' dip in power, usually for a fraction of a second to several second duration.
- An outage on the transmission lines behind the substation is now set for March 2 to 5, to accommodate the setting of the monopoles behind and along the Railroad ROW. This will then set the stage for the high-voltage, 115 kV taps into and back out of the substation from the rear, the eventual supply of power for the substation.
- From April 28 through May 9, a second outage on that same 115 kV circuit will occur, to allow the power into the substation to be hooked up and made live into the high voltage side of the substation transformers.
- From May 9 through the summer, final connections and testing within the substation will be accomplished. That will set the stage for the actual supply of power into Wilton's existing distribution system by the late Fall from the new substation.
- Activity is also taking place along the side of Rte 7, excavating and running ducts from the front of the substation property out to the new riser poles, at Pimpewaug Road, and Ridgefield Road, by the train station, to eventually run primary cables to bring power from the substation out into the distribution circuits.
In short, we are on track for a year-end switch to Wilton's power supply from the new substation.
Updated information will be posted on the Wilton web site as it is received from the utility.