In order to provide a secondary source of power especially in times of emergencies and to ensure continued reliability for current and future demands, Smithville Electric System has acquired property to develop a new substation.
The facility, to be called the John Robert Nixon substation, will be located on just over five acres at 1233 South College Street. The name is in tribute to the man who has served as a member and Chairman of the Board of Smithville Electric since the utility was established 45 years ago. Construction is expected to begin soon with completion anticipated by late 2016 or early 2017.
While SES will continue to share the existing substation on West Main Street with TVA and Caney Fork Electric Cooperative, the new one will be solely for the use of Smithville Electric System.
“We’re getting ready to build a second substation so we can have an alternate power source for the City of Smithville. This way we will be able to supply power to the entire city from either substation. We can do maintenance work on the West Main Street substation without shutting off the power to the entire city. Initially, we will transfer part of the supplied load from the West Main substation to the new one, ” said Richie Knowles, Interim Manager of Smithville Electric System in an interview with WJLE Wednesday.
A secondary substation could also serve as a means of new industrial recruitment. ” It will provide us a secondary feed for industries that might be looking at possibly coming to Smithville. That is usually their first question ” do you have a dual feed”? At the moment we have to say no but we’re working on that so in the future when they call we’ll be able to say “yes we do”. Hopefully that will help attract new industry and help us keep the industry we have,” said Knowles.
According to Knowles, this location is ideal because it is directly beneath an existing transmission line route. Efforts will be made to keep it hidden from public view as much as possible. “It’s going to be just one transformer. A small compact substation. It will set back off the road. Hopefully, it won’t be unsightly to the neighborhood. We’ll make it as clean as possible with fencing and landscaping. We’ll try to make it as nice to the neighborhood as we possibly can,” said Knowles.
TVA has already approved plans for the new substation, which will be approximately 105 feet x 192 feet in size. “TVA has approved the site. We got that approval before we purchased the property. We now have to get the substation designed, engineered, and do the grade work. Of course, we’ll have to order all the materials and start assembling it. We hope to get the plans done in the next couple of months and maybe start the grade work before this winter. We hope to have it up and operational by late 2016 or early 2017,” said Knowles.
Archived News & Obituaries