City is working on a system study of the electric utility

Monday’s meetings included a work session and Full Council. Although the agenda had the meeting as closed, the council moved into open session to discuss the matter. The aldermen heard a repair/upgrade plan for the City’s electrical  substations infrastructure. Electrical Engineer Ray Blakely spoke to the aldermen at the work session regarding how the infrastructure should be upgraded, which substations  should be worked on first and what equipment was already available to the City to make the changes and keep costs as low as possible. Blakely also provided a short presentation via a laptop and movie screen showing just how dangerous an electrical substation explosion is. He explained the benefits of upgrading the system, including having some back-up electrical power if one of the stations fail, something Blakely said the City does not have currently. Blakely said certain stations have available capacity, which is not being used at the moment and in his professional opinion; the downtown substation is already in bad condition. Blakely said he is concerned about safety at the downtown station. Blakely said the downtown station needs to be worked on first.  He explained some of the potential costs involved with making the upgrades; estimating transformers costing about $200,000 and adding regulators onto the transformers bringing the estimated cost up to $300,000 each. He also pointed out the difficulty of obtaining parts in a timely manner. “A medium voltage switch gear can take 26 weeks to get it.” Blakely said. He told the aldermen he can not provide an accurate assessment of the work until the system study is done; At an estimated cost of about $25 to $30 thousand dollars. The Council had already approved contacting Blakely and having infrared camera work done on the electrical lines according to the closed session minutes of July 28, 2008.  The aldermen adjourned from the work session and proceeded to the Full Council.