Lighting Up San Juan Island for the Next Generation

Those of you who live or have spent time on San Juan Island in the past few months may have seen the construction taking place at the Orcas Power & Light Cooperative Friday Harbor Substation.

The OPALCO team began construction this summer on this critical project. The aging substation—more than 50 years old—had reached capacity. The team has been working hard to get all updates completed before the increased energy use in the winter months.

“These upgrades are preventative,” OPALCO Systems Engineer Robert Smallwood says. “We know we had an aging system and capacity limitations. With the size of this transformer, if we lost any other substations, this newly built substation could pick it up. It gives us a lot more redundancy.”

The new substation increases power reliability, keeping San Juan Island residents safe and warm throughout the year.

As more members make the switch away from fossil fuels for their heating and transportation, the co-op anticipates the demand for electricity and the electric load to increase. This update ensures we are able to keep up with growing demand for the next generation of islanders.

The upgrade adds some new features to the substation to help with monitoring and maintenance during its lifetime. One of those upgrades is a control house, which allows the substation to be operated and monitored from one central location. This feature improves safety for the crews when they have to turn off power for maintenance or when they are monitoring the grid.

Another new feature is temperature monitoring. The temperature of the transformer is important for its functionality. If any part of the substation overheats, it can lead to outages or fire risks.

The old transformer is getting a new life on Lopez Island. Currently, Lopez Island only has one transformer and one substation. If power must be taken down for maintenance or if it goes down in an outage, there’s no other feed for the entire island. The goal is to use the old transformer from the Friday Harbor substation on Lopez and build a second substation there.

While the transformer was no longer able to handle the load on San Juan Island, it is considered an oversized transformer for the Lopez Island power load, so it can be repurposed. The project is planned to start in about the next six months.

The additional substation helps serve as a backup for maintenance or outages and allows the co-op to split some of the load on the current Lopez system into two stations.

The construction on the Friday Harbor substation will wrap up and provide electricity by the middle of October. This upgrade should have a life span of at least 50 years, allowing the San Juan Island community to have access to a more reliable local power grid for years to come.