Council approves
mobile substation rental
By Nicholas House
Sun Correspondent
Almost five months after the Sunshine substation failed, the City of Gallup is looking at a temporary solution for citizens’ electrical needs in the upcoming months.
The city council unanimously approved a $320,000 budget adjustment to rent a 10 MVA mobile substation from Navajo Tribal Utility Authority as a temporary replacement for the failed transformer at Sunshine substation, a comprehensive electrical infrastructure project, during a special council meeting on Dec. 9.
The six-month rental term runs from Jan. 1 to July 1, with $250,000 covering the rental and about $70,000 for transportation, materials, labor, and taxes, which are paid out of Electric Operating Cash Fund 507.
Electric Director Charles Nourse explained that his department has been working to balance the electrical bridge with the remaining substations ever since Sunshine substation failed in August.
This left the remaining substations carrying most of the city’s electrical load and with little margin heading into the January winter peak.
The NTUA’s mobile unit will let the city rebalance demand across three substations, stabilize the grid while the new Sunshine substation is built, and reduce the risk of a large, extended outage.
The unit is scheduled to arrive Dec. 23 under a coordinated escorted haul.
“We’re coming together with the county sheriff’s department and the Gallup police to try and do an escort to travel this thing to site,” Nourse said.
A planned midnight outage on Dec. 30 will allow PNM to de-energize the 115 kV line that feeds both the Sunshine and Noe substations so NTUA crews can complete the high-side connection.
Nourse said the unit will “cook” for about three days before activation then run continuously for the six-month term.
“It just basically acclimates to its new environment,” he said.
A second planned outage will be required in July to remove the mobile unit once the new substation is ready.
Councilor Sarah Piano, Dist. 3, questioned the large transportation cost and the amount of money the city has already poured into the Sunshine substation.
Nourse said the rental is an operational stopgap, not a capital cost on the new substation project, and one of the least expensive options available to keep service reliable through winter.
“This was an unplanned cost that sprung upon us,” he said. “This was not going to be attributed to the new Sunshine substation project. This is just an ongoing cost to help try and balance our electrical system. Right now, we’re doing well, but we’re on our off-beat cycle.”
He explained that once the weather gets colder in January, citizens will begin turning their heaters on, and the city will see a large spike in electrical use, which taxes the system and pushes the substations to their maximum capabilities.
“We don’t want to be in a position where we’re relying on that,” Nourse said.
Nourse told councilors that civil work at the site was disrupted after the engineering firm Transmission & Distribution Services LLC used incorrect data, leading to excavation at the wrong locations and depths and forcing crews to backfill, recompact, and correct the work while additional soil is imported because material needs were underestimated.
He said DePauli Engineering & Surveying, LLC has been brought in to restake the site, verify proper elevations, and provide revised grading instructions. As a result, that work is now back on track.
Nourse noted the resulting change order will exceed the typical 10% contingency, but about $298,000 remains within the original project budget to cover the additional cost, and he is keeping detailed records and will work with legal staff to seek reimbursement from the engineer once all receipts and change order amounts are finalized.
The motion was amended to also authorize execution of the lease agreement with NTUA and passed without opposition.
