New Leland Olds substation on track for 2025 completion

Construction of a new 19.5-acre substation to replace the 345-kilovolt (kV) substation at Leland Old Station located near Stanton, North Dakota, is on track for completion in 2025.

The project started in 2020 and most of the construction work has since been completed, including the energizing two of five bays.

“The purpose of the project is three-fold,” said Chad Kuntz, supervisor of Electrical Engineering. “It is displacing an aging infrastructure project that was to occur at the original Leland Olds 345-kV substation. It is also providing an additional terminal for Basin Electric’s East Loop 345-kV transmission project and a wind interconnection that were not available at the original location.”

The new Leland Olds 345-kV substation has nine terminals that include two 345/230-kV transformers, seven 345- kV transmission lines, and room for growth, making it one of Basin Electric’s largest 345-kV substations. “This type of investment in the bulk electric system is required to ensure the cooperative can continue to provide reliable electricity to its members,” Tyler Bosch, Basin Electric construction coordinator, said.

Bosch said the nine terminals need to be cut into the new substation; scheduled outages began in September, which is when Basin Electric’s Transmission System Maintenance (TSM) team started the cutover work. “Most of that work is complete and should be wrapping up soon,” he said.

The next steps will be to get several bays energized before the contractor pauses work for the winter. “Work is progressing well,” Bosch said. Energization of the terminal for a renewable interconnection [the process of connecting renewable energy sources to the electric grid] is targeted to be complete in mid-December; energizing a third bay is tentatively also set for mid-December and the last two bays in January.

In the spring, the plan is to move a 345/230-kV transformer and complete work to connect Leland Olds Station Unit 2 to the new substation.

Kuntz said the project has not been without its challenges. Among them, due to the substation being constructed beneath energized overhead lines, a large portion of final work required scheduled outages. “Due to many factors those outages were not always granted for the timeframe or duration requested,” he said. “This put pressure on Basin Electric and the contractor to complete work in a smaller timeframe.” But, he said, Basin Electric’s TSM “has been instrumental with assistance to meet deadlines.”

Work on the new substation is scheduled to be complete in summer 2025.