Cantonment Power Substation Getting $4.5 Million Upgrade

September 28, 2013

As part of the largest construction project in its history, Gulf Power Gulf Power Company is spending $4.5 million to upgrade its Cantonment substation to help maintain grid reliability in North Escambia.

New aluminum structures and equipment are replacing timeworn steel equipment inside the substation, which serves to control the voltage and the distribution of electricity in the Cantonment area.

“Substations are part of the backbone of our power grid,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power corporate communications manager. “They take the power from our generation plants and step down the voltage to be distributed to homes and businesses. It’s critical we monitor and maintain these carefully.”

The original equipment at the substation, which has been in service for 50 years, has reached the end of its service life. The work  is part of Gulf Power’s construction plan that will overhaul, maintain and build new equipment over the next several years across the utility’s system in Northwest Florida.

“This is part of our pre-planned maintenance schedule,” said Rogers. “We continuously monitor our equipment and look way into the future to make sure we keep our power grid reliable. Our customers count on it.”

While the work is set to be completed in December, 47 inches of rain and an abundance of snakes have made the construction challenging.

“Our crews and contractors have had to navigate around some very muddy terrain because of the rain,” Rogers said, “not to mention poisonous snakes. But despite the challenges, everyone’s working safely and the project remains on schedule.”

Pictured: New structures and equipment can be seen on the left side of the photo at the Cantonment substation compared to the old equipment that is still in the process of being replaced on the right. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

4 Responses to “Cantonment Power Substation Getting $4.5 Million Upgrade”

  1. Bob on September 30th, 2013 1:34 pm

    The reason it cost so much is GP subs all this work out causing cost to escalate, because of double business expense to do the project. During Ivan GP wouldn’t drive there truck off road to repair there drop to my home. I had to wait on Pike to come in and do there job. GP had a shiny new 4 wheel drive and Pike had a older single axle drive truck. GP runs all there cost up so they can charge is more because of ther high cost to operate.

  2. LegalEagle on September 28th, 2013 2:50 pm

    If stuff like this is part of the “pre-planned matience”…why do they need a rate increase? AGAIN??!!

  3. LegalEagle on September 28th, 2013 2:48 pm

    So what about the big upgrade they did after Ivan that we were all charged for with additional rider fees hidden in the base customer charge…It was less than 10 years ago Gulp told us that, overnight, Ivan had destroyed 70 years worth of work…Now 9 years later they come back and tell us the entire system is over 70 years old…WHEN is the PSC going to catch on to the games these companies play…

  4. Jim on September 28th, 2013 10:15 am

    Gulf Power, you got to love them! Was it last year or the year before, when they wanted a price increase to pay for buying up all the land for a “maybe new power plant” around McDavid. This year, they’ve decided that they don’t need that “maybe” plant, but now they need a price increase to update all the substations. Do you think they will continue to update their systems if they get a rate increase or will they just rake in the money? AND, if they don’t get an increase, will they continue this much needed update the system?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News