Electricity hummed through the wires of Toledo Edison’s new Dowling Transmission Substation in Wood County’s Middleton Township on Thursday, doing its job to reinforce the power grid and help keep the electricity flowing for the greater Toledo area.

Richard Sweeney, regional president of Toledo Edison, suggested thinking of the $20 million substation as a “turnpike,” with various exits available in case of trouble to allow power to continue flowing.

“It provides us with more flexibility in terms of how we route power,” he said. 

After some generator station closures, the substation is a way for Toledo Edison to keep the lights on for its 300,000 customers in northwest Ohio.

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The substation will help Toledo Edison, a FirstEnergy Corp. operating company, manage power outages induced by the hot summer weather. 

“The station allows us a way to bypass the damage while crews repair the problem,” he explained.

Behind the monitored chain-link fences surrounding the facility is an impressive array of steel towers and large circuit breakers connected by power lines which pump 345,000 volts into the substation. 

Transformers reduce the voltage to 138,000 volts and send the electricity out again.

Construction on the Dowling Substation began in June, 2013. Crews laid more than 45 miles of 345,000-volt transmission lines, said Joe Hunyor, relay tester for the substation. The project cost almost $32 million, with $17.5 million spent in 2015.

Cindy Perkins, the substation manager, said the site is tied into several substations. Should any disruptions occur along the power lines, the relays at new Dowling can be cleared and keep the power running.

A small control center at the center of the station acts as the nerve-center of the operation. Computers in the control center allow Toledo Edison to monitor the substation remotely and dispatch a maintenance crew to fix problems.

The substation was energized at the end of May, said Chris Eck, a spokesman at Toledo Edison. It is one of many projects completed by Toledo Edison to prepare for summer operations, including trimming trees along 650 miles of powerlines, helicopter patrols of 1,100 miles of transmission lines, and equipment inspections.

FirstEnergy expects to spend about $120 million in 2015 on distribution and transmission infrastructure work in the Toledo Edison service area. More than $76 million of the budgeted total is for transmission-related projects.

Contact Christina Payne at: cpayne@theblade.com or 419-724-6050.

First Published June 12, 2015, 4:00 a.m.