New Versant Switching Station to Benefit Greater Orono

(Left: Power System Technicians Mike and John make the site safe for construction Right: Crew members attach pieces of the new control house)

Bradley, Maine – A new Versant system configuration focusing on the Orono and Milford areas will make service more reliable for customers. Thousands of customers in about twenty towns from Orono to Lowell will soon be connected to a resilient backup power source.

The configuration, called a switching station, is very similar to a substation, though it doesn't step energy up or down. The purpose of a switching station is to allow multiple sources of power to be brought into a single location to transfer power from one source to another in an outage situation. In this case, the switching will be done automatically and depending on the location of the problem, will result in few customers being affected rather than all customers.

“You can think of rerouting power through a switching station like a train switching tracks to take a different route,” said Project Manager Brian Green. “If there’s a tree on a line in one direction, power can be fed from a different way while crews work to make repairs.”

Above: A crane operator places the final piece of the site's new control house

The switching station will have two lines sourced from Graham substation in Veazie. One comes directly from the substation and the other comes to the switching station through the University of Maine and Orono substations. There will be two additional lines leaving the switching station that carry power to the Milford area, which will allow the two source lines from Veazie options to serve the load.

“Since a switching station automatically feeds power from another source, customers won’t need to wait for crews to patrol the line and find the source of the outage.” said Green, “That means Orono area customers can expect fewer outages and shorter outage duration when this project is complete.”

The new configuration is expected to be completed in summer of 2025 and is part of a multi-year plan designed to minimize interruptions in the area after a spate of outages in 2021. Additional work is planned over the next few years, including installing remotely controlled equipment at the university and additional protection devices at the Orono substation.

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