Significant projects keep PUD crews busy this summer

Snohomish County PUD crews will be busy this summer making electric system improvements and completing preventative maintenance projects. The work helps ensure the PUD maintains high levels of reliability through storm season and meets growing demand.

This summer’s most significant project will be the construction of a second transmission line to Camano Island. At more than five miles of line, this will be the largest transmission project the PUD has done in-house and will cost the utility $8 million

“Because PUD line crews will be performing this work, we will save money and time,” said Guy Payne, PUD Assistant General Manager of Distribution and Engineering. “Another positive to keeping this work in-house is that we know our system intimately and our high standards, allowing us to be efficient and maintain the high level of quality to which we’re accustomed.”

Construction of the redundant transmission line is scheduled to begin in north Stanwood in July and will continue west to Camano Island, terminating at the PUD’s Camano Substation. There will be minimal traffic impacts along Highway 532, but the PUD will have traffic control in place when necessary.

Once the transmission project is complete, the PUD will expand and update its Camano Substation to accommodate growth on Camano Island and replace aging equipment in addition to performing maintenance work on the original transmission line.

Starting this summer, the PUD will also be performing significant tree trimming on all four circuits out of its South Camano Substation to help with reliability during the storm season.

The PUD has work scheduled on many of its substations, including standard maintenance, equipment replacement and automation upgrades. Here’s a look at some of those projects:

Sky Valley Substation: The PUD is building a new switching substation off Tjerne Road in Monroe. The new substation provides increased capacity to meet load growth in Monroe, enhancing reliability. Line crews will also be working to move distribution lines underground from the new Sky Valley Substation to the Chain Lake area and its Woods Creek Substation.

Edgecomb Substation: The PUD will install a second 28.5 MVA power transformer and distribution switchgear to the Edgecomb Substation near Smokey Point to serve load growth in the area. The increased capacity will serve new customers in the nearby Cascade Industrial Center, including the Salacia Fish Processing Plant and new Amazon fulfillment center. PUD line crews will also underground distribution lines along Highway 531, from the new roundabout to 51^st Avenue.

Harbour Pointe Substation: The PUD will replace an outdated power transformer, distribution switchgear and ancillary equipment to increase reliability and safety to Mukilteo, Harbour Pointe and outlying areas.

PUD crews will also perform significant pole relocations this summer to make way for road improvement projects and new construction:

• In order to accommodate road widening in Lynnwood, the first project near 43^rd Ave. will relocate 50 poles and the second near 36^th Ave. will relocate another 30.
• Along the Everett waterfront, line crews will re-route about a half-mile of transmission line out to Marine View Drive to make way for new construction.

In addition, the PUD plans to replace hundreds of aging poles, assess and treat thousands of poles and replace dozens of miles of aging underground cable. Along with its work on south Camano Island, the PUD’s Vegetation Management team will have a dozen crews trimming trees across the utility’s service territory throughout the summer. The PUD trims trees on upwards of 450 circuit miles each year to aid in reliability.