Upgrades Improve Reliability

Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), a federal agency, is investing $41 million dollars on three transmission projects aimed at improving capacity and reliability for Mohave’s system. WAPA’s Davis Dam Substation was upgraded by projects to rebuild a transmission line and switchyard which were completed in 2012.

A third WAPA project is underway to replace 27.3 miles with upgraded steel poles and larger conductor to carry power from Davis Dam to Kingman Tap near Coyote Pass which feeds substations serving members in Mohave’s Kingman service area.

“WAPA’s existing line was built in the early days of electrification back in the 1940’s,” said Tyler Carlson, Mohave’s CEO. “Our members in the Kingman service area experience outages when lightning strikes at any place over the 27 miles of line. The new line is designed to carry more load and it will be shielded to help protect the system from the effects of lightning.”

“For the most part our members tend to understand why we have outages during thunderstorms. And we also know that members count on us to work with our transmission providers on better ways to deliver reliable power. When WAPA’s Davis Dam to Kingman Tap Project is complete we should see a reduction in the number of outages caused by lightning striking this line,” said Carlson.

“System reliability improvements are an important consideration for the Co-op’s Board of Directors and management,” he added.

The project is presently scheduled by WAPA to be completed in 2014.