PORT ANGELES — Two electrical transformers, both aging and one crippled, might need to be replaced for approximately $1.2 million to $1.8 million — with some of the money probably covered by insurance, Public Works & Utilities Director Glenn Cutler said Thursday.
The city likely will need to replace the transformer at the Washington Street substation, near Civic Field, which was shut down by a transmission-line lightning strike during July 12-13 thunderstorms, Cutler told the City Council on Tuesday when he asked for an emergency declaration to expedite replacement before the peak season begins this fall.
The cost of between $600,000 and $900,000 likely will be covered by insurance, he said.
The city also is scheduled to buy a new transformer to replace an aging one at the city’s A Street substation in 2013 at a similar cost to that for the Washington Street substation.
That money will come from the city’s Electric Utility Fund.
When lightning struck a 69,000-volt city transmission line in the early morning hours of July 13, power was cut for two hours to 900 northeast Port Angeles customers served by the Washington Street substation before electricity was rerouted from other substations, Cutler said in earlier interview.
That substation provides power to Olympic Medical Center and the city’s wastewater treatment plant, both of which have emergency generators that switched on during the outage.
The hospital also switched to emergency power during a second outage at 5:07 a.m., medical center spokeswoman Bobby Beeman said.
The council Tuesday unanimously ratified an emergency declaration signed by City Manager Dan McKeen to expedite purchase or replacement of the transformer without competitive bidding because of the pending onset of the peak-load winter season and the threat of a long term outage.
Council members would still approve all contracts exceeding $25,000.
“It seems to me, given the reason, the natural cause of this, and the worry we have . . . of getting it up online before winter, it constitutes a bona fide emergency,” Deputy Mayor Brad Collins said.
“That seems to be accepted by our insurance agency as well, so I think it’s totally appropriate.”
With the loss of the transformer, the city’s electric utility lost 14 percent of its electric capacity.
“It kind of puts us on a slim margin for single-point failure, as well as we are coming up to the winter months,” Cutler told council members.
“The indications are that it’s down hard and needs to be replaced.”
Both the damaged transformer and the aging one were built in the 1970s, Cutler said.
Most utilities buy transformers with higher kilovolt ratings, according to the emergency declaration.
A company that reviewed the initial test results on the Washington Street substation suggested that one more test should be conducted to verify the need for replacement, Cutler said Thursday.
“We are setting up another test,” he said. “I don’t know how soon that will happen. Hopefully, fairly quickly, since we are trying to do things in an expedited manner.”
The contract, whether for repair or replacement, must be ratified by the City Council.
The city’s insurance co-payment will probably be $25,000, he said.
Cutler said both transformers could be purchased at once, though the A Street apparatus would not be replaced under declaration-of-emergency guidelines.
“We haven’t made a decision on a final approach,” he said.
The city would pay more to move an order up the production schedule, Cutler said.
Transformers reduce higher-voltage transmissions to lower voltages so power can be distributed to city residents and other customers.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
