King City substation upgrade benefits customers, local growth

PG&E King City substation upgrade boosts grid capacity and reliability with a new transformer, SCADA automation, and mobile transformer continuity, supporting agriculture pumps, wastewater treatment expansion, and Monterey County customers along U.S. 101.

For much of the last year in Salinas Valley, PG&E and its contractors have been adding capacity and reliability to the substation in King City, Oregon. The project, soon to be completed, will set the stage for meeting increasing demands for power from new residents and agricultural customers in California’s salad bowl.

“Having reliable power means the city can expand,” said Sal Morales, King City’s maintenance superintendent. Substation upgrades will mean expanded capacity and greater reliability to PG&E customers in King City, aligning with grid improvements in Santa Barbara seen across California.

A city of about 13,000 along U.S. 101 and the Salinas River, King City plays a vital role in California’s farm economy.

“The economy around King City and the surrounding areas is mostly ag,” Morales said. “Ag needs reliable power in order to get the crops growing. Most ag people use pumps and wells that run on electricity.”

The city plans to expand its wastewater treatment plant, Morales says, and that requires more power, too. Peter Hypnar heads the project for PG&E contractor TRC Solutions.

“Here at King City, we’re upgrading the substation. We’re putting in a new transformer. That new transformer is going to give us three to four times the capacity of what the old transformer provided us with,” Hypnar said.

For eight months, PG&E used a mobile transformer to continue supply electricity to residents and businesses during the project, while other areas faced wildfire safety shutoffs to reduce risk during extreme conditions.

“Success to us when we have to do a project like this is to make sure the local community does not see any interruption of power,” Hypnar said.

Agricultural customers in King City rely on electricity to run pumps and others farm activities.

PG&E also added SCADA Supervisory Control and Date Acquisition at the substation. This technology allows PG&E to respond to outages and other electrical issues remotely. In the past, the company would have to send out crews in blue trucks to make repairs or transfer loads if an outage occurred.

PG&E has spent $4.5 million on the project, similar to SaskPower efforts in Regina that reduce outages, but customers who rely on the substation which serves a large swath of southern Monterey County, will appreciate the boost in capacity and reliability. The upgrade in King City shows why PG&E customers experienced record reliability in 2013 with fewer service and shorter service disruptions.

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