Construction Work Plan Updates
In the last quarter of 2024, LREC’s Board of Directors approved a four-year Construction Work Plan (CWP) with the goal of enhancing our grid to improve resiliency and ensure it is ready for future load growth. As planning and construction occurs on these projects, we will be providing monthly updates in future newsletters. The following information reflects the initial progress made in early 2025:
Field Regulators
We are upgrading our field regulators (devices that maintain proper voltage levels on power lines) on several substations. Staking was completed in February and March for the four projects (out of 11) scheduled for 2025. The upgrades at Evergreen, Butler, and New York Mills substations will be completed late 2025 as the work can be done in winter.
Upgrading Substation Reclosers
Reclosers, the automatic switches that detect and respond to power line disturbances, are also being upgraded. Two projects (out of 10) have been completed as of March to replace end-of-life equipment experiencing operational issues/failures. This work ensures reclosers continue to operate correctly, and migrates all electronic reclosers to one platform, simplifying field operations.
Line Upgrades
The CWP also includes 22 line upgrade projects covering 38.25 miles of line. Early in the year, staking was completed on three of those projects covering 6.3 miles in the Parkers Prairie area, with work scheduled to begin in spring/summer. Replacing older overhead lines with larger conductors will improve system performance and reliability and allow for future growth.