Construction of Ontonagon County REA’s new Boston Substation is complete and the lines are energized. Wolverine Power Cooperative managed the project, which involved designing and constructing the substation and related distribution facilities.

“The load was transferred onto the new Boston substation on Nov. 5, and switching was completed without causing blinking to any of our members’ homes or businesses,” said Debbie Miles, Ontonagon’s general manager.

The substation interconnects with the American Transmission Company system, and official transfer of the load to the Boston Substation occurred about one week earlier than scheduled.

Designing and constructing the substation involved cooperation among four utilities and coordination with several local, state and federal agencies, at a cost of about $3 million.

The substation provides increased service reliability to over 700 existing OCREA member-consumers, and is strategically positioned to accommodate future growth.

“This project would never have happened without Wolverine,” Miles said. “The substation and related upgrades were needed to get the capacity to the Airpark so it can be promoted, and that will help bring on new load.”