CL&P Wants to Build New Substation To Meet Power Demands [Video]

A new power substation is the long-term solution to meet increasing electricity demands in Greenwich. However, it will be years before the project is off the ground.

The substation and more immediate repairs and upgrades to the town's power grid are included in an agreement between the Town of Greenwich and the utility, which was announced at hastily scheduled Town Hall press conference Monday.

The agreement comes less than 2 days after power was restored to the last of the 5,643 customers who were left powerless from a series of CL&P system failures which began with a lightning strike last Wednesday. Repairs were waylaid by two more lightning strikes at the Cos Cob substation on Thursday night and increased demand in the suffocating early summer heat and humidity Friday evening caused further system failures, officials said.

Redundancy or backup plans and equipment failed, creating the outages that plagued Byram, Pemberwick, Glenville and Cos Cob, as the utility tried to minimize further damage to the system by cutting power to parts of the backcountry and the King Street corridor.

Crews are continuing repairs to underground cables on Fairfield Road today. The major east-west thoroughfare will be closed to traffic following morning school traffic at 9 a.m., until the afternoon school traffic around 2 p.m., Tuesday. Repairs should be completed by late tomorrow afternoon, officials said.

Late Friday following a meeting with utility officials and as reports filtered in that the outages were growing, First Selectman Peter Tesei said, "We deserve to have reliable power. We cannot continually operate under those circumstances. They should be extraordinary situations and I don't see heat and temperature as extraordinary circumstances. I want to see infrastructure improvement accelerated."

The plans discussed Monday will cost millions but will not translate into rate hikes for customers. "These are capital improvements and we do not increase rates for capital improvements," said CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross.

To oversee nine system improvements, CL&P is transferring a project manager from Stamford to work exclusively in Greenwich. Director Brad Shaw will be assigned to CL&P's offices on Railroad Avenue where it also has a substation.

The construction of a new substation is the crux to meeting the power demands in Greenwich, officials said. Kenneth Bowes, CL&P's vice president of energy delivery services, said the project will take several years. However, it is anticipated that the system improvements to be done through this year will meet demands.

Bowes estimated it will take up to two years to select a site and obtain approval from the Connecticut Siting Council, which must approve such projects; followed by one to two years of design and development  and then at least a year for construction.

Bowes would not identify potential locations nor would he put a pricetag on it, except to say "it is in the millions and millions of dollars." He said it was preferable but probably not possible to find location of several acres to accommodate such a facility, especially in the downtown area where power demands are greatest.

State Sen. L. Scott Frantz, (R-36) questioned why lines and equipment cannot be installed underground. Bowes said it is most optimal to have a combination of equipment installed both above and below ground.

The rest of Greenwich's legislative delegation - state Reps. Livvy Floren, Fred Camillo and Lile Gibbons - attended the press conference and offered to help expedite the substation project.

The projects that CL&P plans to complete include upgrading, adding circuits and feeder lines to the Cos Cob substation, the substation at the Witco American Center off Route 120, near Route 684; the Byram substation, the Prospect Street substation, and the Sound Shore Drive underground system.

During the height of the outages, the town used emergency generators to operate its sewage treatment plants and private customers including Greenwich Hospital voluntarily switched to generators.

CL&P officials said they will reimburse both the town and a handful of commercial customers who were asked to use generators.  According to Greenwich Hospital spokesman George Pawlush, the hospital used two generators for nearly 21 hours between Thursday and Saturday and paid $10,450 for 2,200 gallons of diesel to power the generators.

*Editor's note: information on reimbursement for generator use has been clarified.