Equipment:
MV Switchgear
About The Project
A city-owned utility in Washington was facing aging infrastructure challenges across five substations originally built in the 1960s and 1970s. While the existing 15kV secondary distribution houses remained structurally sound, the original breakers had become increasingly unreliable and were approaching the end of their service life.
Rather than pursuing a costly full replacement of each electrical house, the utility partnered with Access Electric Supply to develop a more strategic modernization approach. Working closely with the project team, we helped implement a custom cradle-in-cradle replacement breaker solution that allowed the substations to be upgraded while preserving the existing infrastructure.
The new breakers extended the operational life of the substations while introducing modern safety and operational improvements, including remote racking capabilities and remote open/close functionality integrated directly into the city’s SCADA system. To further enhance reliability and maintenance safety, new exterior doors with infrared scanning windows were installed, allowing for safer inspections and improved preventative maintenance practices without exposing personnel to energized equipment.
By combining modernization with practical infrastructure reuse, the project improved system reliability, increased operator safety, and helped the utility avoid the significant cost and downtime associated with full substation replacement.