4kV Power Conversion Project
Baltimore City, Maryland
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electric and natural gas utility in Central Maryland wanted to improve system safety and reliability by replacing outdated and unavailable 4kV equipment with 13kV equipment.
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.
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.