USA, Arkansas, Jonesboro: A new substation in the Valley View area is up and running, supplying roughly 2,000 households with power.

The $2.6 M substation took about 1.5 years to complete.

The 2,000 customers were powered off other substations in the area, according to City Water and Light engineer Chance Smith.

With the area’s growth, the substation was needed. “The southwest side of Jonesboro has been growing pretty rapidly over the last few years,” Smith said. “We have noticed that and decided it needed a station closer to the load.” A ‘load’ can be explained as the customers’ electricity.

The new substation will also increase reliability in access to electricity for their customers.

“A lot of blinks and outages are caused by limbs on the line and certain things happening to the line. By building a station closer, it cuts down those line’s distances,” added Smith. That is how we can increase reliability.”

In addition to the $2.6 M to build the substation, it cost $2.3 M to energise it.

Smith said the substation was paid for by budgeting money intake from CWL customers.

With this substation energised and operating, this brings the total to 29 substations in Jonesboro.

Source: KAIT