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Transmission Tie Project Complete
By now you have likely seen the ductile iron poles and wire making its way across Volga whether on 1st Street, Highway 14, or by Caspian Ave. A common question we get asked is, "Why are we putting overhead electric lines in when all of Volga is underground?" This is a fair question. The City of Volga recently built a new 69kV transmission line through Volga to connect our two substations. The project consisted of constructing approximately 1.43 miles of a 69kV transmission line to connect to the city’s current west substation and east substation. The project included placing a combination of steel and ductile iron poles in public right-of-ways and existing utility easements from 1st Street, to Hansina Ave, to Highway 14, and then to Caspian Ave. Currently, the City receives electric power from two separate 69kV transmission lines. One connects to the east substation and the other connects to the west substation. One 69kV line is located along Samara Ave/464th Ave and the other 69kV line is along Caspian Ave/465th Ave. Both lines travel approximately a mile to the north where they connect to another transmission line that connects to our power supplier. The east substation is located near South Dakota Soybean Processors and the west substation is located just northwest of the City’s street shop.
The high voltage of the line is extremely expensive to bury, and to bury the line between the two substations would have created many issues with current underground utilities, disturbances to current infrastructure, and more difficulties with long-term maintenance. The route that was chosen to connect the two substations was the most effective and efficient route to connect. Other routes added hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to go an alternate way.
The project does the following:
• Increases electric reliability and stability by tying together the City’s two substations.
• Allows the City to power down and maintain either substation by back feeding from the other substation to not disturb electric service to all users.
• Allows the City to fix current failing poles north of Caspian Ave by powering down the electric current on this line and back feeding from the other substation.
• Gives the City an alternate method to back feed if a transmission pole or line were to break or be disturbed in a weather-related incident.
To see a a fly-by of the full route of the line, watch this video.
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