Wwp Planning To Install Additional Power Lines

Thu., June 27, 1996

Putsata Reang Staff Writer

Washington Water Power plans to spend $650,000 to install a new power line that will provide more reliable electrical service to some 6,000 North Side homes and businesses.

The company must first wrap up right-of-way negotiations with five remaining property owners along the proposed route before workers can start planting poles. The property owners are holding out for more money from WWP, which pays for right-of-way depending on the property’s value.

But WWP staff say they’re hopeful they can finish the bargaining and start laying out the 115,000-volt overhead line by August. WWP hopes to finish the project in October.

Currently, homes and businesses north of Wellesley Avenue between Division and Market streets are served by the WWP substation at Lyons and Standard. The new line is expected to help ease power loads on the lines that feed into that station.

“This connection is kind of like adding an arterial in town,” said Bob Mansfield, manager of public consultation for WWP. “We have traffic problems with (power) flow. If you add an arterial, it makes things a little better.”

The new power line will connect the substation at Lyons and Standard with another at Francis and Cedar. It will run east along the north side of Francis to Standard, then north along the east side of Standard to the substation.

Power outages are rare, Mansfield said. However, if power is knocked out in that area, between 900 and 1,600 customers - including Holy Family Hospital, Franklin Park Mall, and two schools - could potentially have to wait more than half a day to get electrical service restored if the new line is not built.

“The difference is a 15-hour outage or having no more than a blink,” Mansfield said. “The 15-hour outage is unacceptable.”

The power line will help the rest of the city, too, as it reduces the load for the city’s entire transmission system.

“We all feel it (improvements) helps a little bit,” Mansfield said.

Mansfield said there was little opposition from residents and businesses to the project.

The project will not affect utility rates, he said.

, DataTimes

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