Contractor crews, working on behalf of Ameren Illinois, are working on a substation expansion project near Illinois Route 127 just outside of Nashville that will add resiliency and enhanced power service reliability to the local grid and support future residential and business growth.
Ameren Illinois is reconfiguring the site by splitting the existing transmission line into two sections, giving it two sources. When completed in mid-June, the upgraded site will provide increased reliability to customers fed from both the North Nashville and Okawville substations, respectively, and enable power to be rerouted among other substations in the area in the event of an outage. Crews are replacing two wooden-pole transmission line structures, one to the east and one to the west, with steel structures.
"This $9.8 million project is part of our overall statewide plan to build a cleaner, greener, more resilient grid," said Jason Klein, Director of South Region Electric Operations, Ameren Illinois. "With these enhancements along Route 127, Ameren Illinois is taking proactive steps to prepare for the future needs of our electric customers. We're excited to bring these enhancements to our customers in and around Washington County."
The enhancements are part of Ameren Illinois' multi-year initiative to modernize its energy delivery system. Since 2012, 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.
