Project

Power Conversion Improves Safety and Reliability

PROJECT

4kV Power Conversion Project

LOCATION

Baltimore City, Maryland

Background

The largest electric and natural gas utility in Central Maryland wanted to improve system safety and reliability by replacing outdated and unavailable 4kV equipment with 13kV equipment.

Challenges

The project team faced several major challenges: to introduce non-standard equipment, establish a right-of-way to install it, and to minimize customer outage time.

Solutions

The ENTRUST Solutions Group team converted four 4kV circuits by reallocating them to local 13kV circuits. They worked on more than 200 existing and proposed utility poles, 22 proposed vaults—including submersible equipment, 4,000 linear feet (LF) of proposed concrete encased conduit construction, and 42,000 LF of underground cable installation.

To complete the project successfully, the project team coordinated with the Department of Recreation and Parks to establish a right-of-way to install non-standard equipment. Team members were instrumental in developing a solution to address the Department’s concerns with renewing their privately owned 4kV equipment. They identified all of the positive and negative risks involved with multiple design solutions and communicated their findings to the stakeholders. The Department of Recreation and Parks decided to install a step-down transformer that is not typical on the system, but provided the most cost-effective solution. Finally, the team developed construction sequences to minimize outage time for over 500 customers.

The team developed construction sequences to minimize outage time for over 500 customers.

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