Power with purpose means being ready to respond and plan ahead

by General Manager Steve Stroshane

Happy Co-op Month!
October is the perfect time to thank you and reaffirm the purpose that guides everything we do. As a cooperative, we exist to serve you, our members, neighbors and communities. Being a co-op means we are member-owned and locally controlled. Decisions are not made in corporate boardrooms hundreds of miles away; they are made here at home, by members like you. As general manager of Polk-Burnett, I see purpose in action every single day. This month, I'd like to share updates on four key strategies where we are focusing on what matters most: delivering reliable power and providing real value to the people we serve. 

1. Ready to respond: Apple River Substation outage
Just before dawn on Tuesday, August 26, a truck and trailer accident on Highway 8 between Amery and Turtle Lake caused significant damage to the Apple River Substation, left. The resulting outage left 1,500 co-op members in the dark for about two hours, from 6 to 8:15 a.m.

Crews from Polk-Burnett and Dairyland Power Cooperative responded immediately. Once the scene was safe, they assessed the damage and quickly realized it would take days to fully repair. Knowing that you rely on electricity and extended outages are unacceptable, our team re-routed electricity from other substations to restore power to co-op members quickly and safely. Then, workers got busy repairing the damaged substation, above.

By August 29, just three days after the accident, the Apple River Substation was re-energized and power was re-routed back through it, just in time for the busy Labor Day weekend.

We appreciate your positive comments and concern for our lineworkers and all involved. What a wonderful community!

Understanding substations and your power
The electricity you use travels a great distance, across hundreds of miles and thousands of power poles, undergoing several steps to reach your home. It begins at the power plant. Dairyland Power Cooperative, our generation and transmission (G&T) power provider, owns and operates power plants that produce high-voltage electricity. Large transformers step up the voltage even higher so it can travel long distances across transmission lines. As electricity approaches its final destination, it goes through a substation, where it is stepped down by another large transformer to 7,200 volts. It can then be safely delivered across Polk-Burnett distribution power lines to the pole outside your home. The final overhead transformer or underground green transformer box converts the voltage down to 120/240 volts that operate the devices that power your life. 

2. Planning ahead: New substation under construction
Construction of the new Cedar Lake Substation in the Town of Star Prairie has begun – it's the first new substation on co-op lines since 2001! We strategically planned for this substation as demand for electricity and your expectations for reliability continue to grow. Not only is new substation work necessary, but additional work is required to reconfigure nearby power lines. Pictured are two co-op linemen, working high above their trucks on the line reconfiguration. The highest-voltage wires are 69,000 volts, and the wires they are working on are 12,500 volts.

We expect Cedar Lake Substation to be energized by December. Dairyland owns all substations in our service area, and we deliver power from the substation to you, our local members.

3. Planning ahead: New local solar under construction
Construction has started on Luck and Viola Solar; the two arrays will generate local power to benefit co-op members. Local solar not only adds clean energy to the grid, but it also improves reliability and offsets power market costs, making it an operational and financial advantage for the co-op and our members.

● Luck Solar will be connected to the Luck Substation between Luck and Frederic.
● Viola Solar will be connected to the Hertel Substation between Siren and Hertel.
● The 2.5MW arrays will power about 600 homes each.
● The developer is OneEnergy Renewables; Polk-Burnett will purchase the power.
● The arrays have small 13-acre footprints, with native plants to improve soil health.
● We anticipate both Luck and Viola solar will be energized by December.

4. Planning ahead: Moving overhead power lines underground
Polk-Burnett maintains 3,500 miles of power line, about 1,500 are overhead and 2,000 are underground. Our annual work plan includes converting overhead lines to underground cable where it makes sense to strengthen the grid. Pictured are Siren crew members working on Shuttleworth Road west of Siren late summer.

Members: You can convert your service line from overhead to underground. Contact us for a routing plan and a cost quote, 800-421-0283, ext. 389.