Investing in infrastructure
Substations in Cass County Electric Cooperative's (CCEC) territory are regularly being built or improved upon. But what exactly does updating substations entail?
CCEC's power provider Minnkota Power Cooperative is currently rebuilding the Rogers Substation to serve its members better. Minnkota Power and CCEC regularly make plant and substation upgrades to fulfill our mission statement 'To serve our members' energy needs with affordable and reliable electricity." In fact, in 2021, CCEC members' power was "on" 99.9909% of the time. Your cooperative consistently ranks in the top 10% of cooperatives in the country in reliability.
Substations are essential for the distribution of energy to the cooperative's member-owners. Substations convert high voltage electricity from power plants into lower voltage levels suitable for distribution to homes and businesses. As energy demands increase, substations must keep up to prevent too much energy from moving through a system that cannot support it. Updating substations is a process that typically takes a few months. During that time, the old substation gets a complete overhaul, generally increasing in size and electrical capacity.
CCEC and Minnkota Power's lineworkers and power control technicians back feed the energy from other substations in the area, or in the case of this specific rebuild, off a mobile substation to prevent members from not having power during construction. Substations will often get new electronic-controlled and automation equipment and support, a new enclosure, and updated electrical hardware to ensure optimal performance in safety and reliability.
CCEC and Minnkota Power regularly update our substations across our service territory to meet the member-owners growing needs. The Rogers Substation rebuild is expected to be complete by the end of October, and reliability issues are not expected to continue to be a problem - Minnkota Power completed repairs to the mobile sub after experiencing issues with the equipment. By updating and improving the grid, CCEC can continue to provide reliable power supply, as more up-to-date equipment can handle and distribute power more reliably and maintain flexibility for growth in the future.
Pictures from this project are able to be viewed below. Click the arrow tabs on the side to see more pictures!
