By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE
More power is on the line for Glasgow.
A new transmission line that will supply additional electricity to the city is on schedule for a Nov. 30, 2009, completion date according to Nancy K. Mitchell, Tennessee Valley Authority manager for Valley Relations in the Kentucky District.
TVA will build approximately five miles of transmission line that will provide power to a new substation to be constructed by the Glasgow Electric Plant Board in 2009.
“Glasgow, right now, gets all of its power from TVA at the Haywood substation,” explained EPB superintendent Billy Ray. “The new line is for us to build a new substation that we’re tentatively calling the East Glasgow Primary.”
The east Glasgow substation will be built on property given to EPB by the city on Ky. 63 where the city dump used to be, close to the Cumberland Parkway overpass.
Ray said the new transmission line will come from TVA’s existing east-west line that travels from Bowling Green to Summer Shade and out off Bristletown Road where they will tap into it. The line follows a general north-northwest path from there toward the new substation site. It will run roughly parallel and to the east of Roseville Road much of the way.
About half of the new line will be built on a right of way that the plant board already owned for a lower voltage transmission line.
“We gave (TVA) that right of way as an enticement for them to build the line,” Ray said. “So we’ll be taking down our old transmission line and they’ll be building this new one on the same piece of property.”
The old 69kV transmission line that EPB owned leads from Haywood to the Gorin Park substation. EPB is relinquishing it to TVA and they will use that right of way and tear down the old line to build a new 161kV line to serve the new substation. Ray said EPB plans to retire the Gorin Park substation after the new one is online.
The new transmission line and substation will not only provide additional power to the city, according to Ray, but also serve as a backup in EPB’s redundancy plan in case of power outages at the Haywood site due to severe weather or other disasters.
TVA plans to start putting up lines in the spring after all easement issues are finalized with property owners, according to Mitchell.
Ray anticipates construction on the new substation will be completed in November 2009 as well.
“When they get that transmission line completed and energized, we want it to tie right into our new substation,” he said.
