Jenny Lancour | Daily Press Escanaba’s new electrical substation, pictured above this spring, is scheduled to go on line soon. The substation is one of three substations the city has to distribute power to customers in Escanaba and Ford River

ESCANABA — Escanaba’s new North Side Substation — recently constructed behind the city’s public works complex — has some kinks to work out before it can be put into service, council and Electrical Advisory Committee (EAC) members were informed Wednesday.

“Everything went good with the construction and the testing and the system was energized for a couple weeks,” explained Electric Superintendent Mike Furmanski during an update at a joint meeting of council and the EAC.

The substation was expected to be operating by now, but no amps were being produced when an attempt was recently made to put the system on line, Furmanski said. A manufacturing representative was scheduled to check out the equipment today.

Construction on the $2.5 million, 28-megawatt substation began last November with work continuing through the winter on the one-acre site located south of 20th Avenue North.

Krause Power Engineering, Inc., of Chippewa Falls, Wis., designed and constructed the new substation and was hopeful the system would be up and running by this spring.

Energis High Voltages Resources, Inc., of Green Bay, constructed a 24-foot-by-30-foot control building and installed interior cables prior to testing the new system.

Escanaba’s new substation has been in the planning stage for more than five years and will distribute power within the city and parts of Ford River in conjunction with the city’s two other substations.

Escanaba has a 28-megawatt substation — called the Northshore Substation — which was constructed near the former power plant when equipment malfunctioned at the old plant substation on Feb. 2, 2015, causing extensive damage and widespread power outages throughout the city.

This summer, upgrades are planned for the city’s Northshore Substation once the new substation goes on line. A new cement foundation will be poured for the substation, which was temporarily built on railroad ties to quickly restore power during the 2015 outage.

At Wednesday’s meeting, council approved hiring Krause Power Engineering to upgrade the Northshore Substation for an amount not to exceed $100,000, as budgeted for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

Krause will construct a new foundation on a neighboring city-owned parcel and the Northshore Substation will be picked up and moved over to the new cement pad.

The city plans to sell the 1.5-acre parcel where the substation currently resides to Jon Liss, owner of Dun Yet Enterprises, LLC, who purchased the former power plant to expand his machining, welding and fabrication business — Northern Machining & Repair in Escanaba.

Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to allow the city to negotiate the sale of the land to Liss, who also offered to provide cranes and trailers to move the substation from its current location to its new foundation.

In addition to the North Side Substation and the Northshore Substation, Escanaba has a third system — the 22-megawatt West Side Substation — which was constructed on North 30th Street during the early 1980s.

In 2018, work is scheduled to be done on the North Side Substation and the West Side Substation so each one can be a backup for the other. Plans for 2019 call for cables to be replaced at the West Side Substation.

In other business on Wednesday, council also hired Krause Power Engineering to replace existing distribution lines where the city distributes power to an area in Ford River Township. The agreement is for an amount not to exceed $15,000, as budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year.

Council and EAC members were also updated Wednesday on a proposed solar project the city is considering installing at one of two sites — 15.7 acres owned by BP Products on 20th Avenue North or 5.5 acres at the Delta County Airport.

Escanaba is considering developing a sun-powered system that would help reduce power costs for residential, commercial and large power users.

A large-scale utility solar generation system would be a one-time investment powered by free sunshine for more than 25 years, explained EAC member Glendon Brown.

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Jenny Lancour, (906) 786-2021, ext. 143, jlancour@dailypress.net