By JONATHAN SNYDER
Bids for construction of the new electric substation on Cherry Street are set to be sent out next spring, according to Utility Director Jon Oman.
The substation project comes due to a need for electrical supply at the west and south side of Bluffton. Oman stated that multiple industries have inquired about available electrical capacity in the area, adding that current infrastructure only has about four to six megawatts left that they can add to the grid.
“At the point where we thought there were legitimate possibilities, we understood that it was time to do something about setting up and meeting the needs of future growth,” Oman said. “I’m expecting in the next 10 years to maybe have 40 more Megawatts needed out there.”
The substation is also expected to give redundancy to Bluffton’s entire power grid, with Oman stating that power from the Cherry Street substation will be rerouted to other substations in case of outages. Additional circuits will be taken out to Lancaster and Horton Streets so relief options are available in the northern areas of the city.
“If you need to shut down a whole substation for maintenance, you can take the load from that station, shift it and have it shipped to another substation,” Oman said. “It just benefits your entire system. It’s your insurance policy.”
The Board of Public Works and Safety accepted a bid from Virginia Transformer Corporation for two 56 MVA transformers that will accept a max of 56 megawatts of power to the station, with one acting as a backup. The transformers are expected to arrive sometime in early 2026, with new 69 KV circuit breakers purchased from Meiden America Switchgear arriving in late June of next year.
In the meantime, the city will send out bids to construct the substation next spring. Transmission and distribution lines will need to be built, as well as the substation site itself. While currently in the design and review stages, Oman stated that the site is expected to launch in May of 2026, after the transformers are unloaded and tested.
“When the transformers show up, in a perfect world, everything else is sitting there ready to roll,” Oman said.
The total cost of the substation was estimated at $13 million by Mayor John Whicker in March’s State of the City address. The transformers, circuit breakers and surveying for the site currently bring the city’s bill to an estimated $5,377,000, with the substation’s construction cost still unknown.
jonathan@news-banner.com
