Naval Base Kitsap–Bangor’s substation two was fully brought back online in late May.

It’d been just shy of a decade since a catastrophic event rendered substation two useless– until now.

The purpose of a substation is to 'step down' high voltage electricity from the transmission system to lower voltage electricity so it can be easily supplied to homes and businesses through distribution lines. NBK–Bangor has six substations, therefore, when substation two went down in July 2010, it created a break in the loop between all six.

“The power comes onto base at substation one from Puget Sound Energy and Bonneville Power Administration,” said Todd Bolden, lead engineering technician, Watts Constructors. “That’s how you get what we call bulk power [into the substation].”

Ray Glenn, an electrical engineer with Watts Constructors, explained how the power is distributed and what happened when substation two went down.

“Transmission lines are distributed around Naval Base Kitsap–Bangor with distribution points and six different substations,” Glenn said. “When substation two went down, it caused a catastrophic failure and there was a mass power outage.”

The Navy collaborated with True Gas Services to develop a temporary power system for the upper base that allowed power for about eight to nine years. Through a series of contracts and contractors, Watts Construction and Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Northwest took over the contract and completed the project.

“Substation two is an integral part of the power distribution system on the upper base for neighborhoods, recreational facilities, shopping, and command structures,” Glenn said. “Substation two is their main power source.”

Full power to the project required removal of the temporary systems that had been put in place. This required 10 power outages to perform. That’s why so many were affected with power loss at various times and the reason why it took so many outages. They had to limit the amount of time customers were out of power to about six to eight hours at one time, which in turn limited the amount of work that could be done per outage. The outages provided the high-voltage electricians with a safe environment while removing the temporary equipment.

“The substation wasn’t just restored but was also renovated to distribute more power,” Glenn stated. “Under normal conditions, we’re powering up about seven megawatts of power, which is over one-third of the power consumed on the total base. It provides enough power for over 21,000 to 28,000 homes from this substation. So, we provide a significant power source for NAVFAC [on] Bangor.”

A team of eight contractors made this project possible and brought the station up to 2008 National Electric and National Electrical Safety Code standards per the original contract.

According to Bolden, the new substation not only uses the original loop but now has a new loop added for power distribution. This gives the substation the ability to turn off half the station for maintenance while still allowing the other half to maintain the loop of power throughout the base.

“That capability will now limit the number of outages that happen on base,” Bolden stated. “The power capabilities are now tremendous.”

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