Alliant Energy To Energize New Cedar Rapids Substation
Customer outages will be necessary to make the transition
Cedar Rapids, IA - Alliant Energy is preparing to energize its new ‘RiverRun' substation in southeast Cedar Rapids. This effort will mark completion of a new electrical backbone for downtown Cedar Rapids, as well as in nearby core areas of the community. The company's ‘Cedar Temporary' substation will be retired when all customers are transferred to the new substation later this year. The ‘Cedar Temporary' substation was built in a matter of weeks following the 2008 floods as a way to provide core areas power until the permanent replacement was sited and constructed.
The switchover to this new substation is expected to begin in late March and will be staggered over several months. Customers will be communicated with via letters and phone calls if they will be impacted by an outage. The dates, times and frequency of outages will be determined by where customers are located on the electrical system. Not all downtown customers will be impacted by an outage and a limited number of larger customers west of the river could experience an outage. While most customers will experience just one outage, some may be out twice during the switchover process.
Most outages will last about an hour, but some of the planned work could take slightly longer. The outages could be adjusted based on equipment checks at the new substation, but are currently scheduled for 6 a.m. on various Sunday mornings beginning March 25. Impacted large industrial customers will be moved to the new substation over holidays or during their planned outages later this year.
"We are extremely excited to get this project online and serving our customers," said Tom Aller, President of Alliant Energy's Interstate Power and Light Company. "This marks the point where we have not only recovered from the flood, but are now operating a system that's even better than what was in place before the June 2008 flood."
The "RiverRun" site will be linked to the ‘Downtown Industrial' substation, energized in June 2011 to provide the city's core with full redundancy between both substations. ITC Midwest, which provides transmission service in Cedar Rapids, will complete an upgrade later this year to provide the city's core and entire community with greater levels of high-voltage system redundancy.
Impacted customers will be communicated with directly to provide more detail on specific outages as well as updates if outage schedules change. Customers are encouraged to keep their contact phone number updated with Alliant Energy, as phone calls are used to communicate most planned outages and outage schedule changes. Customers may call 1-800-ALLIANT (255-4268) to review and update their contact information.
This outage will impact some traffic signals in the downtown area. Drivers are reminded to always treat intersections with inoperable traffic signals as a four-way stop.
SOURCE: Alliant Energy