Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) has begun a major project to upgrade electrical facilities in and around Blanchard to improve reliability and meet customer demand resulting from the town’s rapid growth.
 
The project involves changing the main power transformer at PSO’s Blanchard substation, rebuilding seven miles of electric distribution lines and installing more than 200 new utility poles.  So far, approximately 3 miles of line has been rebuilt and around 80 poles installed.
 
In addition, a “mobile” substation has been brought in to serve as a temporary replacement while work to upgrade the substation’s permanent equipment is underway.  The mobile sub is expected to be in place for about a month, during which time the town’s electrical system will be somewhat more susceptible to power blinks and interruptions.
 
“With the mobile sub in place we don’t have the same operational flexibility that we normally do, so we may experience a few growing pains while the project is in progress,” said Dee Davis, PSO’s Lawton-based distribution system manager.  “Of course, we’ll do our best to prevent power interruptions and to limit the outage time of any that might occur, but when the work is complete and the main substation brought back into service, PSO customers in Blanchard will have a system that is virtually new and should see a substantial improvement in its reliability, as well as in its ability to meet the demands of continued growth in the community.”
 
The project is being overseen by Gary Welborn, PSO distribution supervisor in Chickasha, and involves both a contract line crew and substation crew.  According to Welborn, much of the work will take place at the substation, located about five miles south of town.  Outside the sub, much of the line rebuilding is taking place on the west side of town.
 
“The vast majority of the poles we have to install will be along County Line Road,” said Welborn.  “I expect it will probably be near the end of June before the last pole is in the ground and the last line rebuilt.”
 
The overall cost for the project is estimated at approximately $2 million.
           
PSO, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is an electric utility company serving approximately 514,000 customers in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma.  Based in Tulsa, PSO has more than 4,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and is the largest provider of wind energy in the state.