Photo by Sue Watson
Steven Cash, with the Holly Springs Utility Department, works to restore power to businesses located on the downtown square Sept. 5. A number of areas in the system were temporarily out of power following a fusing of a switch at the North Substation in Holly Springs.
North substation on the blink
Electrical engineers with Mid-South Utilities are trouble-shooting an incident that took place Tuesday, Sept. 5, around 11 a.m.
It knocked out the North Substation in Holly Springs, according to Bill Stone, general manager at the Holly Springs Utility Department.
He said work to locate the damages to the substation and replace parts of it is underway. Cool weather is helping the HSUD electric system, he said.
Power is now being routed from the Ashland substation and the Coldwater substation in Mt. Pleasant, he said.
“We’re in get-by mode,” he said Thursday. “Our folks are doing assessments now. We do not know how long it will take or what it will cost to fix it.
“We do know that some of the safety devices failed to react when there was a fault outside the station.”
A power surge or short failed to trigger the breakers, Stone said.
The disconnect on HSUD’s side was fused.
He added that the manual switches that HSUD personnel use to disconnect the station were fused together, but TVA was able to disconnect the station remotely.
Holly Springs Fire Chief Kenny Holbrook said there was quite a show of sparks in the areas affected until the switches were turned off on the TVA feeds.
“We spent most of the day rerouting the power feeds,” Stone said. “Now the majority of our system to the Holly Springs area is being fed from the Holly Springs south substation on Neely Avenue. Of course we are blessed with cooler weather and are monitoring the South Substation. It puts a heavier load on that South Holly Springs substation until the North Holly Springs substation is back on line.”
Stone said there is some other rerouting that can be done if necessary to get backup capacity from Ashland and/or Mt. Pleasant.
He praised his employees for staying with the problem until it was solved.
“Our men worked late into the night Tuesday,” Stone said. “And there were some customers who we couldn’t get back on until night. They did an awesome job, as they always do. All our electric personnel did a fantastic job.”