Emergency response began in January following an electrical failure. Five electricians mobilized immediately, assessed the damaged equipment and restored temporary power through a temporary distribution system built by KE. The team tested breakers, motors, cables, and transformers while developing a phased plan that allowed reconstruction to occur with minimal disruption to plant operations.
One of the project’s greatest challenges was safely working around energized 15kV overhead distribution while operating two parallel electrical systems. Careful lockout/tagout planning and equipment isolation were essential throughout demolition and reconstruction to protect both personnel and ongoing operations.
As demolition progressed, KE removed the damaged transformer bank, switchgear, concrete pads and associated electrical infrastructure before rebuilding the system from the ground up. The medium-voltage distribution was reconfigured to improve reliability and maintainability, including converting a portion of the overhead distribution to underground and installing new underground raceway systems into a new electrical room. By utilizing an existing building as the new electrical room, the team reduced construction time and accelerated the overall restoration schedule.
A carefully planned 16-hour shutdown allowed KE to reroute the facility’s medium-voltage power from the utility and eliminate the need for temporary generation. During the outage, crews removed an existing pole, bored beneath active railroad tracks to install new underground medium-voltage infrastructure and completed the utility cutover. The new electrical room and unit substation remained under construction following the shutdown, with final testing, commissioning and permanent energization completed later in the project.
