Robins adds new substation Published Oct. 3, 2008 By Holly Birchfield 78 ABW/PA Robins Air Force Base, GA -- Robins is partnering with Georgia Power to create an additional electrical substation that would provide a more reliable power source for industrial areas on the north end of the base. The project is expected to be completed by early 2009. Robins currently has three electrical substations to meet the electricity requirements of its multi-faceted mission. John Powell, an electrical engineer in the 78th Civil Engineer Squadron, said Robins and Georgia Power are jointly supporting the project. "Georgia Power is providing the transmission line to tie in and serve the new substation," he said. "They will provide the structure, the transformer and the new substation and circuit breakers that will be part of the substation." Mr. Powell said Georgia Power is doing the site work and installation of the substation and Robins will install new circuits on base that will tie into the substation. Robins will own four new circuit breakers, while Georgia Power will retain ownership of the high voltage transformer. Mr. Powell said the power source works much like those in the private sector. "A substation takes high voltage coming in from the utility provider and steps it down into another voltage that is usable by the customer," he said. "It's just a power source for the customers on base. It's identical to the substations out in the private world where a residential or industrial customer receives power." Mr. Powell said once power is released from the substation, it's sent through a distribution grid, whether overhead or underground, and the power is transferred to the smaller transformers in the field where customers receive their power. The new substation will support associate units located in what is commonly called 'the outback" of the base, a workload the first substation had been supporting for a while. "Due to BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) missions coming on base, we'll have increased power requirements," Mr. Powell said. "Also, due to the increased power requirements for the existing industrial complex, the first substation is peaking out or is at near maximum. It's not good to have any piece of equipment or substation like this to run at its peak load for an extended period of time. It wears down the system." Memory Rozier, a utility engineer in the 78th CES, said the new electrical substation will help Robins meet growing energy demands new missions bring. "About two years ago, we finally realized that energy consumption on base was increasing beyond what our other substations could provide," she said. "Because of the redundancy we have set up in our substation, if something goes out on one end, we can shut that down and rotate the power to another source. We were reaching capacity and not being able to do that any longer." The new substation proved to be a better solution to the burden on the existing setup, as it would cost more to upgrade the current substation, Ms. Rozier said. The north end of the base was chosen since it holds the largest energy consumer on base, the industrial complex. Mr. Powell said adding the electrical substation was a good setup for Robins. "It will allow us to better maintain our existing distribution grid by isolating the circuits better and will perform better load sharing between the new and existing substations," he said. "It will basically allow us to provide a better product." David Brantley, 78th CES chief of Facility Operations, said the new substation will make room for Robins to grow. While Robins expects to see some energy cost savings from the new substation, David Hopper, 78th CES Resource Efficiency manager, said the exact level of savings is not yet known.