Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, in cooperation with CSX, purchased a little over one acre of land from CSX to construct a new 34.5kv/12.47kv substation close to the CSX site. The substation will provide electric service not only to the new CSX facility, but will be expandable in order to provide for future growth in the Hancock-Wood service area primarily west of Liberty Hi Road, both north and south of State Route 18. The land has been graded and fenced by Savco, the general contractor for CSX. Hancock-Wood will be awarding a construction contract soon for the station steel construction. It is planned to have the substation completed in late July 2010.



Hancock-Wood line personnel have recently installed new overhead lines along State Route 18 and additional contract crews will be continuing to install both new overhead and underground lines in the area this spring.

According to HWE, when it comes to electric substations, you’re probably fine not knowing anything about those fenced-in, cold combinations of wires and metal as long as your power stays on, right? Wrong. This equipment is actually paramount to providing you with reliable power to your home or business. And although they may look like fun climbing equipment to children, substations are extremely dangerous and should be kept away from! The equipment is fenced in for a reason. It can kill instantly.

A substation controls the flow of electricity from Hancock-Wood Electric’s supplier to you. It works much like highway entrance and exit ramps, where traffic speeds up, slows down, changes direction and transfers from one type of road to another. At these transfer points, called transformers, the voltage of electricity is raised or lowered before it exits onto other lines. A transformer located on a pole near your house, reduces the voltage even further for use in your home. The flow of electricity through a substation is like water flowing through a pipe.

While electricity doesn’t actually come from the little holes in outlets, it is waiting inside the outlet from the substation to be used – much like the way water waits in pipes for you to turn on the faucet and let it flow. Plus, electricity travels at different voltages (e.g., homes need lower voltage; businesses need higher).

There are 19 substations scattered throughout Hancock-Wood Electric’s service territory. Having them spread around is important, because it helps us restore power to you quickly during power outages. Since our substations and lines are all connected as one large network,we can use power from a different substation to restore your power through what’s called “backfeeding.”

Now, the next time you pass a substation you’ll remember where your electricity is coming from. But be sure to also remember the danger and keep on moving – just like the voltage flowing through your power lines.