New $3.5M investment set for Fulton Co.

Tricounty Rural Electric Cooperative to construct new substation

Tricounty Rural Electric Cooperative is making a substantial investment of $3.5 million in Fulton County to construct a new electric distribution substation on five acres of land on the southwest corner of State Route 109 and County Road H located just off exit 39 on the Ohio Turnpike. A 138 kilovolt (KV) transmission line will be feeding two 10/12/14 MVA Virginia transformers to ensure redundancy and reliability with a capacity to feed up to 28 megawatts (MW) of load.

Brett Perkins, general manager, Tricounty Electric Cooperative, explained, “Over the past several years, we have seen consistent growth with our current loads in this area and we were approaching the capacity of the current infrastructure. This area has had consistent growth with new loads, and we wanted to be prepared for the future and have our system be an enticement for businesses to locate within our service territory. We are optimistic that businesses will appreciate the electrical infrastructure being in place allowing us to respond to businesses power needs and requirements quickly.”

According to Perkins, in early 2020, Tricounty began requesting a detailed load study (DLS) from its transmission provider. The property was purchased in May 2020, followed by engineering drawings, permits, surveys, and material bids. Tricounty broke ground on July 26 and project completion is targeted for January 2022, with the substation being energized sometime during the first quarter.

In total, the equipment used for the substation will include:

Two 10/12/14 MVA Virginia transformers – $677,000
An oil containment system to surround the transformers in the event of a leak – $27,000
A 12-foot by 20-foot control building to house electronics – $98,000
The steel bus structures – $451,000
Three dead tank General Electric circuit breakers – $144,000
Six Siemens regulators – $110,000

According to Perkins, the site was selected with the intent to replace two aging and undersized delivery points with one larger substation. The corner location allows Tricounty to easily feed three phase power in all four directions.

“The entire community that we serve in this area will benefit in various ways. Current and future members will benefit with better reliability and larger available capacity,” said Perkins.

Perkins noted that despite operating as a non-profit cooperative utility, Tricounty still pays property taxes. This project will provide the area school, Township, and County with approximately $70,000 a year in property tax revenue from Tricounty. The substation will also provide stable and reliable electricity for the area for decades, and will be an enticement for development and in return more jobs for the community.

Perkins also explained that most of the funding for the project is being provided by Tricounty’s cooperative partner, National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (NRUCFC).

Tricounty Rural Electric Cooperative operates on a non-profit cooperative business model. It has five substations and three delivery points feeding over 620 miles of power lines to 4,400 members throughout five counties – Fulton, Henry, Lucas, Wood, and Putnam – and is headquartered in Malinta, Ohio.