Webb City Substation 432 recently began carrying load following an overhaul that improves Liberty’s ability to provide reliable power to residential and commercial customers.
“The substation serves part of Webb City as well as an industrial complex – an area that is growing,” said Kim Boesl, Senior Manager of Strategic Projects. “We had some equipment out there that was 30 years old and with only 44 megawatts of capacity.”
A portable substation was brought in to switch the load, while work began to deenergize and scrap the former equipment. The new substation features two 33 megawatt transformers allowing for 66 megawatts of capacity.
“We also used a ringbus configuration and put in a main-tie-main to upgrade our protection scheme,” Boesl said.
The main-tie-main breaker scheme allows for increased sectionalizing and automatic transfer of load. The ringbus provides sectionalization, so that a section can be taken out of service for emergencies or maintenance without deenergizing the substation.
With the upgrade, the station should be able to maintain power in the event of an equipment failure higher in the circuit stream, she said.