Following the Jan. 26 Rochelle City Council approval of an $11.89 million bid for transmission line construction, Rochelle Municipal Utilities will see its new electrical substation project on Centerpoint Drive west of town break ground in mid-March, RMU Superintendent of Electric Operations Blake Toliver said Wednesday.
The project will cost north of $20 million and is being done to improve RMU power redundancy, support system resiliency and provide necessary capacity for future commercial and industrial growth in the west side of RMU’s service territory. The new substation project will be RMU’s second in five years. The city completed a $13.8 million substation on Ritchie Road in May 2022.
The $11.89 million line construction portion will see new 34.5kV transmission line on metal poles from the Ritchie Road substation to the Centerpoint Drive substation. In October, the City Council approved a $7.6 million bid for the substation’s construction. Property easements have totaled over $400,000 for pole placement. In early 2024, the city council purchased switchgear for $2.6 million and a transformer for $2 million for the project, which will be cash-funded using RMU reserve funds and will have no impact on customers’ electric rates.
“Getting the line work approved was a huge step towards getting this project across the finish line,” Toliver said. “All contracts have been awarded. The only thing left to go in front of the City Council at this point is an underground cable purchase. After we get that, it’s off to the races and getting this thing built.”
Toliver said that Tri-City Electric will begin construction of the substation in mid-March with grading a road northeast of the industrial park on Centerpoint Drive, which will be followed by site prep and ground grid work. Foundations will then be poured and the transformer and switchgear will be moved to the site.
The substation itself is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The line construction is expected to be completed by mid-2027 and energization of the substation will follow, Toliver said.
The project has been in the works since RMU completed its last substation in 2022, and its line upgrade component has added extra complexity.
“I’m glad to see the project coming together,” Toliver said. “It’s a very expensive project. It’s taken multiple years of engineering and multiple iterations of line. We had to meet FAA requirements and work with different farmers and make it aesthetically pleasing for some of the neighborhoods we’re going to pass by. It’s been a ton of work behind the scenes. Seeing it finally get off the ground and moving forward is a great thing for the utility in the long run. It will open us up for some more development on that side of our territory.”
Both recent RMU substation projects have seen rising costs and long lead times for construction and components in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with supply chain issues and inflation.
Toliver described navigating pricing and timing on the projects as “difficult to say the least.” The project so far has been $5-7 million more expensive than originally anticipated.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about that,” Toliver said. “It’s the way of the world right now. Everything has become more and more expensive. If we don’t move on this project today and we wait another 5-10 years, it would be three times more expensive. We have the money in the bank and we can afford it right now. So it’s best to move forward with what we’ve got.”
The Ritchie Road substation completed in 2022 was RMU’s first new one in over 20 years. Toliver said constructing two substations in five years is not common among publicly-owned utilities like RMU. He said the work has been rewarding because of how the improvements can position RMU and the city to attract more industry and economic development.
“RMU has positioned itself well to be able to provide for things like that,” Toliver said. “Knowing that you’re a part of these conversations and that you had a part in the design of the substation and what it could do for the city is a great feeling.”
Once the substation is completed, “significant” reliability concerns on the western side of RMU’s electric service territory will be remedied, Toliver said. Two more layers of power redundancy will be added to the area and power capacity will be upgraded.
“Eventually, if we tie it into our Twombly Road substation, that will add another layer of redundancy,” Toliver said. “This should help us a lot with the western edge of our territory. The eastern edge of our territory is set up very well and can be fed from three different directions. That’s not the case on the western side, so that’s what we’re focused on.”