State Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, toured the newest power substation in Lewis County late last week and met with Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) officials to discuss the county’s power infrastructure needs.
The Lewis County PUD held a special commission meeting Friday afternoon that was led by Lewis County PUD Commissioner Dave Fenn. The commissioner, along with PUD General Manager David Plotz, Executive Assistant Stacy Davis and Engineering Manager Travis Kinney hosted the local state lawmaker to take a look at the utility's newest substation near Winlock.
The project was funded by the state.
The new electrical infrastructure is meant to make power in the southern part of the county — the areas in and around Winlock, Vader and Toledo — more reliable.
According to Kinney, the PUD hopes to have the site operational sometime in January.
During the tour, the state and local officials also discussed a larger need for power infrastructure in the state. While the new substation will increase power capacity and reliability to the southern part of Lewis County, officials noted that the state still needs more investment in transmission lines across the state and especially on the west side running along Interstate 5.
“Finally, it's not just about energy production,” Abbarno said. “It’s transmission. That is the key. Not only from east to west and over the mountains, but we have to deal with our whole western corridor. Transmission is, I think, one of the … bigger issues than energy production right now.”
According to Plotz, Winlock is the county’s biggest area of growth in terms of new services as the county prepares for industrial, commercial and residential growth in the area.
The new substation has one single 25-megawatt transformer that on the high end will connect to high voltage 69 kilovolt (kv) power lines and on the low end distribute power to lower voltage 12-kv local power lines that will transform power to homes and businesses in the area.
Tinney said the substation is the largest the PUD has ever built. That is in part because the station is being built large enough to expand its capacity in the future. While it will go online in January with one transformer and eight circuits, it has space for two additional transformers and four more circuits.
“We’re building a lot of infrastructure up front,” Kinney said. “But it is designed for modular. So we’re really only going to have a third of the capacity of the substation here even though it's probably 75% of the construction.”
Also in pursuit of longevity and growth for the new site, the station is actually designed to handle voltage up to 115 kv even though it will start receiving power at just 69 kv.
Assuming power needs continue to grow in the southern part of the county, the substation would eventually move to phase two construction. That project, which would need additional funding, would add an additional 25-megawatt transformer, doubling the station's current capacity. A third phase would add a third and final 25-mw transformer, increasing the substation’s capacity to three times the original capacity.
The new substation also adds more than just power capacity. Kinney emphasized during the tour of the facility that the new substation will reduce the number of residents impacted by outages and the amount of time those outages last. That's primarily because of the multiple circuits at the facility, which will allow the PUD to isolate outages and continue providing power to many of their customers while repairs are underway.
Improvements to the southern county power grid in the future will likely make addressing outages even more streamlined.
“With this substation here, it won't be automatic, but we should be able to get the power restored within minutes,” Kinney said. “And then, once we do the upgrades, other places, they wouldn't even see it.”
The Winlock substation has been in the works since around 2021 when Abbarno predicted the need for more power infrastructure. According to Abbarno and PUD officials, the representative secured the funding before the local utility had even decided to pursue any money from the state.
“It was interesting when we secured funding for this because Lewis County PUD didn't even apply,” Abbarno said. “We kind of knew you needed it. I remember when I got a call and they said, ‘where did this money come from?’”
Both Plotz and Abbarno said that securing state funding for the project was important because it means that current residents of the county aren't being charged for the growth and development of the area.
“Those that were here aren't impacted by the new arrivals, and that was key,” Plotz said. “That made it a lot easier for us.”
