Moorhead is in the market for an $800,000 electrical transformer thanks to the growing demand for power in southeast Moorhead.
"We're just experiencing load growth from the new houses and new businesses in Moorhead," said Dave Kahly, Moorhead Public Service Commission electric division manager.
At Monday's Moorhead City Council meeting, the city moved to take bids for the new equipment.
This sort of transformer takes the 115,000 volts that are coming across transmission lines and reduces that to 12,500, Kahly said. Local lines then carry the energy to smaller transformers that step it down to 120 volts, the voltage used in homes. Outlets with a voltage of 240 get their power from two of these lines.
MPSC General Manager Bill Schwandt said they anticipate that the new transformer will be needed in the next five years.
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"However, to ensure backup capacity and peak capacity, we are looking to add this transformer within the next year," Schwandt said.
There are currently six such transformers in Moorhead. And these are able to supply the current electricity demands of the city. But the transformer system also has to have the capacity to handle the failure of a single transformer.
"If one of these transformers goes down, I have to be able to use my other five to get the load served," Kahly said.
And, with the growth Moorhead's power demands, it's getting to the point that if one transformer failed, "there'd be some people out," Kahly said.
The new transformer would be located at the southeast substation on 29th Avenue South.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Shane Mercer at (701) 451-5734
