“We know that having a stronger more reliant grid is important for customers as well as businesses and economic growth and we see the Ottawa County and the Lakeshore region as being one of the key growth regions in the state.”
Greg Salisbury is Consumers Vice President of Electric Distribution Engineering.
He highlighted key projects affecting the 90,000 residents served in the county.
“We have 1.2 miles of underground conversion scheduled on the Pigeon Lake /Olive circuit. And we also have a big 3 1/2-mile reconductoring project in Port Sheldon Township. That'll strengthen and harden above ground lines to make them resilient.”
Salisbury says automatic transfer reclosure loops will be added in Hudsonville and Ottawa Beach.
“What that does is it links two or three circuits together with automated devices so that if part of one goes down, the system will automatically switch between the others and instead of having maybe 2000 customers out, there might only be 100 and the crews know exactly where to go to fix the issue.”
There will be significant work on substations in Spring Lake, Hudsonville and Port Sheldon where residents continue to voice concerns over the coming closure of the coal-powered Campbell Plant this year.
Salisbury says it will be replaced with renewable energy sources on the grid.
“Residents in Michigan can count on us to deliver more reliable power because of work like the work we're doing in Ottawa County because it strengthens the entire grid.”
