Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
June 23, 2008
Ernest H. Maas
V.P. – Engineering & Operations
906-632-5175
EDISON SAULT UPGRADES ITS
PORTAGE AVENUE SUBSTATION
Edison Sault Electric Company is in the process of making improvements to its
Portage Avenue Substation to enable the facility to continue to serve customers
well into the future. The existing facility, located in Sault Ste. Marie just
east of the Portage Avenue Bridge, is tightly configured which can result in
electric outages for multiple circuits whenever any repair work or maintenance
needs to be done at the substation.
The improvements being made by Edison Sault will expand the layout of the
facility to allow the Company to safely work on one portion of the substation
without impacting customers served by other portions of the facility. Certain
older portions of the substation originally constructed with wood will be
replaced with steel to extend the useful operations of the facility.
Construction activities to date have included the replacement of soil to
facilitate the expansion of the substation. A local contractor, Bonacci
Contracting, is replacing the soil in the expanded substation footprint in order
to provide an improved environment for the electrical facilities within the
substation. That is why there is a large mound of fill located on site. Below
grade work for the substation expansion may appear to be work activity on the
canal bank however, this is not the case. Edison Sault Electric’s hydro be
affected by the improvements to this substation.
Subsequent work activities at the Portage Avenue Substation this fall will
include new fencing, and next year new steel for the various structures will be
installed. When completed, the upgraded substation will be sized to meet the
needs of Edison Sault’s customers and be capable of serving new electric
distribution circuits.
Because of the magnitude of the work involved, the project will not be completed
until 2010 with a current expected cost of at least $500,000.
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