Substations – The resilient spine of EWEB’s electric system
“The resilience of the distribution system is based on three elements: damage prevention, system recovery, and functional survivability.” – Electric Power Research Institute
Thirty-eight substations, often called EWEB's "resilient spine," connect the utility's electric grid. The redundancy of substations in the system ensures reliable power flows to homes and businesses despite unexpected equipment failures and routine maintenance.
"EWEB's transmission and distribution system sometimes is referred to as overbuilt – but that's simply not true!" said Tyler Nice, EWEB electric operations manager. “When one part fails, we can lean on another part of the system. This is redundancy, not waste. And redundancy makes us more resilient to both small problems and major disasters.”
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Eugene was growing fast as new residents and industries moved to the area. EWEB engineers were challenged to accommodate a rapidly expanding city to keep up with the growing electricity demand. They had the ingenuity and the space to design a grid to accommodate growth and expanded load capacity. They did this by creating a redundant substation system where if one substation or part of the system goes down, another part can pick up the slack on the same electric circuit.
Substations change, or "step down," high voltage electricity from power generation stations to levels that can be safely distributed to homes and businesses. The Currin Substation, near Garden Way and I-5, is under construction, which means the power Currin usually distributes is being distributed from other substations that can temporarily handle the extra load capacity – thanks to the redundant design of EWEB's infrastructure.
"The flexibility provided by EWEB's past design decisions has put us in a good place to accommodate changing demands today, such as electrification and EV adoption," said Nice. "We are unique and lucky in that most other systems at other utilities, serving a similar customer base, are not typically as robust and redundant as ours."
Utility infrastructure is a complex system that requires investment and maintenance to provide constant, reliable power. When electricity is so reliable and accessible with a simple flip of the switch, it can be easy to overlook what it takes to maintain a reliable electric grid.
EWEB tracks electric reliability through metrics like the average duration and frequency of outages. But resiliency is not entirely measurable. Instead, it’s a characteristic of a distribution system that demonstrates incident prevention, recovery, and survivability. The redundancy in EWEB’s system helps the utility recover faster from equipment damage, reduces the occurrence of prolonged outages, and sustains the functional life span of equipment by distributing load capacity between multiple substations when needed.
While EWEB is fortunate to have a system designed for resiliency, the utility must maintain this characteristic to supply reliable power for generations to come. With so much of EWEB's electric infrastructure built around the same time, we have arrived at an aging infrastructure bubble. The equipment installed 50 to 60 years ago during Eugene's building boom is reaching the end of its useful life and no longer meets modern systematic expectations.
Currin is the first of ten substations scheduled for a rebuild over the next ten years as part of EWEB's major infrastructure investments through our Capital Improvement Plan for rehabilitating, replacing, and installing new infrastructure to maintain system resiliency.
We're partnering with you on a reliable future
To ensure a reliable tomorrow, we need to put in the work today, and the rates you pay as an EWEB customer help us do just that. In 2022, for the first time in five years, EWEB's utility rates increased. Rising costs from inflation, near-term supply chain shortages, and the need to upgrade aging infrastructure require an increase in the fees we charge for water and electric services. A percentage of your rates will help fund a new era of distribution infrastructure, providing reliable power for customers for the next half a century and beyond.
Learn more at eweb.org/electricreliability.
