GRANITE CITY – Ameren Illinois announced today construction is well underway on an expansion of the company’s transmission substation located on Maryville Road.
Ameren Illinois is adding new high-voltage equipment inside the substation to further strengthen the reliability and flexibility of Ameren Illinois’ transmission system throughout Madison County. The existing transmission lines will be re-arranged to provide multiple power sources into the substation to facilitate the ability to switch between line sources in the event of a power outage.
In addition Ameren Illinois is utilizing fiber optics, via the transmission line shield wires, to provide high speed protection schemes, and to accurately identify any faults located on the lines.
This fall, Ameren Illinois will set three steel transmission power poles and supporting wood poles along with transmission power lines to re-connect the Maryville Road substation upgrades to the energy grid.
A transmission substation is much larger in size than a neighborhood distribution substation. It steps down high voltage it receives to a much lower voltage that can be transferred to a distribution substation. The distribution substation then steps down the voltage even further for delivery to small transformers, which starts the process of lowering the voltage for delivery of power to a customer’s home or business.
The Maryville Road project should go into service by the end of the year.
“This project is a key step in our long-range plans to construct a smarter electric grid to meet our customers growing needs,” said Jason Klein, Director of Division 5 Operations for Ameren Illinois. “We’re excited to bring these innovative enhancements to our customers in Madison County.”
The enhancements are part of Ameren Illinois’ multi-year initiative to modernize its energy delivery system. Since 2012, the company has implemented hundreds of projects, adding new technology and strengthening poles, wires and distribution equipment. As a result, reliability has improved by an average of 17 percent.
