New O&R Substation Improves Electric Service
 PEARL RIVER NY Sept. 10, 2012 — Clarkstown civic and business leaders today in West Nyack ceremonially "plugged in" O&R's new $16.7-million substation project which is designed to expand electric service to commercial and residential customers in the area, improve electric service reliability for those customers and enhance economic development opportunities.
The new substation is built at 19 Snake Hill Road on 2.7 acres owned by Tilcon New York which granted O&R a permanent easement to build on the property. The new substation each year will contribute $574,340 in new county, town and school taxes.
O&R has invested over $100 million in 2012 to fortify, improve and maintain the reliability of O&R's electric system. O&R has spent more than $640 million over the past 10 years on electric system reliability projects.
O&R President and CEO Bill Longhi said, "In a way, what we are really talking about here today is the opening of a new business in town. It's a business that processes and delivers electricity just like Federal Express processes and delivers packages."
He added, "It's a business that provides the reliable energy that cools our homes, keeps our food and lights our way. It powers the entertainment, the comfort, the safety and the security of our modern lives at the flip of a switch. It's a business that can help bring new business to the community and that means attracting new jobs for our neighbors. And, it's a business that will make substantial contributions to tax stability."
The new substation is located between O&R's Congers and West Nyack substations where the electric load has significantly grown in recent years. As a result, these two substations combined currently serve over 20,000 residential and commercial customers, including the Palisades Center Mall. Both the substations are heavily loaded substations that need support and backup for contingency purposes.
In fact, since June 2009, O&R has been serving Tilcon's electric demand from a mobile substation that has been temporarily deployed on the Tilcon site to spare the Congers and West Nyack substations of potential overload from the heavy demand on them.
Designed to help shoulder that heavy load and significantly improve service reliability, this new facility is an entry point to bring more electricity into the area. It is not a power plant and does not generate electricity. The substation takes high voltage electricity from the 138kV overhead transmission wire that has run through this area for decades and converts that electricity to lower voltage. The substation equipment then channels that lower voltage electricity into the electric distribution system that runs along the street to deliver the electricity to homes and businesses. |
