Mobile substation built to restore power
Arkansas, Little Rock: Power has finally been restored to utility customers in south Arkansas after a strong storm hit the region two weeks ago.
Image source: KATV
USA, Arkansas, Little Rock: Power has finally been restored to utility customers in south Arkansas after a strong storm hit the region two weeks ago.
On 24 April, Governor Asa Hutchinson declared a state of emergency for the areas hit by storms. Hundreds of people in southern Arkansas were still without power until the evening of 23 April. KATV spoke with the electric company that serves that region about what needed to be done to get the power turned back on.
Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas spokesperson Rob Roedel said the installation of a new mobile substation that could have taken two to three months, took four days. He said the project would not have been completed without the help of 100 lineman, some whom came from other companies including C&L Electric Cooperative. Roedel said contractors were working 16-hour days.
Roedel said at the beginning of the storm, there were 50,000 customers without power. C&L Electric Cooperative customers accounted 21,000 of those affected. On 23 April, the remaining 350 customers that did not have power for nearly two weeks, had electricity restored.
Roedel said the project was not an easy task. He said there was a downed line in a flooded area of the Saline River where they could not feed power. The new mobile substation delivers power on the west side of the river. They had to build 63 phase distribution line poles and the conductor.
Roedel said that once the flooding from the Saline River has subsided, they can repair the original damaged line and return back to the normal substation.
Source: KATV