PORT ANGELES — Clallam Public Utility District commissioners have accepted delivery of components for the construction of the Liberty substation switchyard at 1248 E. Lauridsen Blvd. in Port Angeles.
The commissioners — including the new commissioner and former PUD employee John Purvis — agreed on Monday that RHD Enterprises had completed its portion of the project bid through the fabrication and delivery of the metal and steel components required for the construction of the substation.
“We will take one 115 Kilovolt line from Bonneville Power Administration line in Port Angeles to Liberty Station,” said Nicole Hartman, Clallam PUD communications manager, in an email on Tuesday.
“In Liberty Station, we will have two large switches. One will feed the transmission line to the west to Airport Substation, Laird Substation, and to Silverado Substation. That will complete a ‘loop’ of transmission lines for service redundancy to the west.”
“The other switch will feed the transmission line to the east and that is what gives us our ‘loop’ of transmission out to Happy Valley Substation, where we also take power delivery from BPA,” Hartman said.
The PUD used to have two transmission feeders leaving BPA Port Angeles, a 115 KV feeder going east to Sequim and a 69KV feeder going west to Joyce.
About 15 years ago, the PUD began rebuilding the line to Joyce with the final phase of that rebuild all the way to BPA in Port Angeles starting construction last Monday and anticipating to be complete by the end of June.
“With Liberty station online, which we expect to start construction this year, the PUD will accept a single 115 KV transmission feed from BPA to our new station,” Hartman said.
“The station will split that feeder into two 115 KV feeders with circuit protection for each feeder,” she added, saying that “additionally, there will be a tie switch allowing us to tie the west and east feeders together. This in turn will allow us to feed all of our Sequim and Port Angeles customers from any one of four BPA points of delivery, should we need to do that.”
The bid for this portion of the project was set at just more than $78,000 with a total project cost of $1 million.
Tree trimming
PUD commissioners also on Monday opened bidding for an aerial tree trimming project that requires a helicopter-borne aerial saw.
The PUD has received no bids for this project for two consecutive years so staff recommended going to bid on the open market.
The staff has said the negotiations for this bid will focus on areas needing the most attention.
“The areas that require aerial tree trimming are locations with no equipment access to the lines such as canyon crossings, inaccessible lines with no roads, and locations with unstable ground,” Hartman said.
The PUD last had this kind of work performed in 2012.
“A few examples are our transmission line from Blyn Substation east to Johnson/Gundstone property out near Craig Road and Chicken Coop Road and the Morse Creek Dip on the west side where our transmission and distribution lines go up the hill towards McCarver Street,” Hartman said.
“We have sections along Highway 112 towards Joyce and even more between Sekiu and Neah Bay where we don’t have equipment access for tree trimming,” Hartman said.
The project bid must cost no more than $170,000.
The PUD also awarded Pacific Pole Inspections LLC a bid not to exceed $141,250 to inspect, treat and report on the electrical transmission and distribution of power poles in the county.
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Reporter Ken Park can be reached at kpark@peninsuladailynews.com.
