Amaren Illinois to build $9m substation

2021-11-3 Amaren

Ameren Illinois has announced the construction of a $9.1 million state-of-the-art substation in the Champaign region.

The new facility will enhance service reliability, flexibility and load capacity of the company’s local electric grid in Champaign and Bondville. Unlike many substations, the power line source from Bondville to the southwest Champaign substation location will be placed underground.

“Substations do not get a lot of fanfare but they are critical elements in a reliable, resilient energy grid,” said Ron Juarez, Director of Eastern Region Electric Operations, Ameren Illinois. “Our southwest Champaign substation is a prototype that will serve as a design model for future substation construction throughout the Ameren Illinois service territory. When we place this substation into service next spring, we’ll have the capability to re-route power from other substations in the area to reduce the duration of outages, and meet demand for reliable energy from growing businesses in the Champaign region.”

The enhancements are part of Ameren Illinois’ multi-year initiative to modernize its energy delivery system. The company has implemented hundreds of projects, added new technology and strengthened poles, wires and distribution equipment. As a result, reliability has improved by an average of 22 percent and the time of an outage has been reduced by 16 percent.