Power Outages Update

The Mayor has recently contacted MN Power relating to the uncharacteristic power outages our community has seen over the last handful of weeks.  He has received the following message from MN Power:

“Minnesota Power is expediting the work that needs to be done to provide a new permanent source of electricity to the City of Silver Bay. This work includes installing poles, conduit, and underground cable to connect the existing MP 13.8kV Feeder to the new source at the North Shore Substation (NSS).  Expect to see Minnesota Power and Hanco Utilities (installing the conduit for the underground cable) in the area throughout the next few weeks, as we continue to improve the reliability and resiliency of our system.   

We do have a meeting internally next week to continue to identify other potential solutions to establish a second source of electricity for the city. In the future, Minnesota Power plans to eliminate the 4kv system and upgrade the entire city to 13.8kv. After this is complete, (approx. 5 years) the town will be split up between two new 13.8kv feeders sourced from NTS, and both feeders will have an automatic, isolation and restoration system installed – meaning if there is a fault on the line somewhere, the system will automatically isolate it and restore as much of the remaining, un-faulted line as possible. This will result in a much smaller outage and faster troubleshooting response time since the crew will not have to patrol the entire feeder.”