Connecticut Light and Power Company is installing extra controls at substations throughout the Greater Hartford area as part of $46 million in upgrades to ready its energy grid for peak summer demand.
CL&P said those are among a number of steps taken to prepare for the peak demand summer months and better serve its 1.2 million customers in 149 cities and towns across Connecticut, according to spokesman Mitch Gross.
Every fall, CL&P, a unit of Berlin-based Northeast Utilities Inc., starts work on the grid to reduce the possibility of summer service interruptions. These include:
– Installing additional controls at substations that serve the towns of Bloomfield, East Granby, Granby, Simsbury, Windsor, New Hartford, Canton, Barkhamsted, Avon, Burlington, Stamford and Norwalk;
– Building new substations in Guilford and Oxford to serve customers in Guilford, Branford, Oxford, Middlebury, Seymour and Southbury;
– Undertaking projects in 47 communities to increase circuit capacity – the ability to provide electricity to customers without compromising the delivery equipment when temperatures and electrical demand are at their highest;
– Performing inspections and follow-up maintenance on all distribution substations in areas where heavy customer demand is expected or where failure of a single piece of equipment would result in long interruptions to large numbers of customers;
– Verifying the integrity and efficiency of cooling equipment at all major substations to ensure the equipment will be appropriately cooled to avoid equipment failures from overheating while carrying peak summer loads.
