This topic was featured in the May 2024 Kansas Country Living Centerspread and is an excerpt from the Annual Report.
We broke ground at the beginning of the year on the expansion of our existing Phillipsburg 115 kilovolt (kV) substation. This expansion was needed in order to serve the enlargement of the Summit Sustainable Ingredients plant, which we called the Amber Wave project. This project also required us to make significant upgrades in our Phillipsburg ethanol plant substation.
One of the biggest hurdles we had to overcome during this project was the long lead times on materials due to supply chain issues. Our crews worked hand-in-hand with crews from Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, our generation and transmission provider, to complete the project approximately one and a half months before the scheduled energization.
Another large substation project that was started in 2023 was the expansion and upgrade of our Smith Center 115 kV substation. Most of our distribution equipment was at its end of life and we were having problems acquiring parts to keep the existing equipment functional. In October 2023, we started this expansion project which entailed enlarging the substation footprint, installing new distribution feeder equipment and building a new control house. Work progressed exceptionally well throughout the end of the year and completion was expected in March 2024.
As many of our members are aware, we started a major meter exchange project for residential and small commercial services in November 2023. The current meters that were installed in 2012 were starting to fail at a high rate as they were nearing the end of their expected useful life. They will be replaced with the same kind used for other non-residential services, allowing us to streamline our process and continue to provide the best service we can to our members. These meters report energy consumption, which is used for billing, and voltage levels and current, which are used to help us operate the system in a more efficient manner. This project is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
We have also seen an influx in the number of road and bridge projects that require us to temporarily or permanently move our distribution infrastructure. One in particular was on Highway 383 between Almena and Highway 36. This was just the first stage of this highway project, and we are expecting two more stages that will require us to relocate our lines. Bridge projects are a little simpler as they are usually just temporary moves. One of these projects was just south of Washington on Highway 15 and another west of Logan on Highway 9.
As technologies advance, we are always looking for opportunities to improve how our system reacts to significant changes, such as severe weather events, inadvertent human interaction or other changes that are outside of our control. Innovative technologies can provide capabilities to operate our system more efficiently, reliably and safely.