Electrical Substation Update South of Tennis Courts

 

Seattle Public Utilities has been doing work at the former electrical substation at the south end of Laurelhurst Park near the tennis courts at 4502 NE 41st Street, for over a year.

In September 2019 SPU salvaged the old Laurelhurst Substation equipment which was decommissioned and no longer needed.  The substation property remains with one high voltage switch still in service.  SPU said that the benefits of decommissioning the equipment have given the customers better system reliability by moving from the phasing out 4,000 volt system to the current 26,000 volt distribution system. Another benefit is removing the hazard of having thousands of gallons of dielectric oil removed from the existing transformers on-site. 

The Laurelhurst Blog recently contacted SPU inquiring if this project is still going on as the work has been very intermittent.

SPU communicated:

The civil improvement project has been paused due to the concrete union strike, which started in December, 2021. So the project is on hold.  The project at the substation included removing old substation equipment and installing new electrical conduits at the facility. We can confirm that the equipment has been removed, but the remaining work relies on concrete pours.  It is uncertain when our crews will complete this work, so I cannot give you a firm date on when this work will be completed. 

There are some crews working on an electrical feeder at this location, which supply electricity from the substation to homes.

  

The SPU website at the time said about the civll improvement project: 

Project Overview

Seattle City Light crews will be working inside the Laurelhurst Substation to salvage the old Laurelhurst Substation equipment which has been decommissioned and install new electrical conduit.

Project Purpose: 

The equipment is no longer needed, but the substation property will remain with one high voltage switch still in service.

Project Benefits

This work is needed to upgrade the electrical infrastructure in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.  Decommissioning the equipment has given the customers better system reliability by moving from the phasing out 4,000 volt system to our current 26,000 volt distribution system.  Removing the hazard of having thousands of gallons of dielectric oil removed from the existing transformers on-site.  All of the aging equipment will be removed.

Project Impacts

• Crews will be working inside the substation to remove an old transformer concrete pad and other associated equipment. Crews will also trench and install new electrical conduit.
• An excavator will be used during construction, which may produce some loud noises.
• Maintenance power outages are not planned during this work.
• Customers can expect some parking, sidewalk and traffic restrictions along NE 41st Street

For questions email SCL_CommOutreach@seattle.gov or go here.