A Letter to our Membership – January 31, 2025

Dear BARC Electric Membership,

Quoting my favorite radio news reporter, Paul Harvey: “And now, for the rest of the story.” As BARC Electric’s chief operations officer and an electrical engineer with over 20 years of experience in the electric utility and the power industry, it is my hope that I can shed light on some concerns that were recently brought up.

BARC is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative providing electric service to approximately 13,000 members located within five counties (Bath, Allegheny, Rockbridge, Highland and Augusta). To provide service to our membership, we utilize roughly 2,000 miles of primarily overhead electric lines, equaling 6.8 services for every mile of line. In order to provide electric service to our member-owners, BARC maintains 12 substations and four distribution delivery points.

Each substation and delivery point are continuously monitored for capacity limits, equipment maintenance and upgrade requirements. The substation that was the subject of the discussion on Jan. 27 is called the Hot Springs substation. It is true that, during extreme cold events, BARC is observing the load on the main power transformers inside the substation that get close to its rated value. However, the main power transformers inside all our substations have a multi-tiered rating system. Without going into too great of detail on how transformers are rated, the basic rating concept has to do with the ability of the transformer mineral oil to cool the transformer core due to increased current.

Because BARC, in general, and especially the Hot Springs substation is a winter-peaking system, we tend to see the greatest load on our substation power transformer in the winter months. Peak loads have recently been associated with extreme cold events when the temperature is in the single digits or below zero. Even during an event like the previous week that saw temperatures in Hot Springs dip to -5 degrees or colder in some locations, the transformer temperature was well within the limits of the first-tier rating of the transformer.

There is a second-tier rating on the transformer that will allow for an approximately 10% load increase without additional action. Finally, there is third- and fourth-tier ratings that would allow the unit to operate at 25% and 40% over the first tier, respectively, when auxiliary cooling fan units are turned on. BARC does not want to operate the transformers in the third- and fourth-tier levels under “normal” circumstances, but the equipment can provide the power requirements to the connected members during extreme events when the auxiliary cooling units are engaged.

Regarding plans to upgrade substations, power lines and other electric infrastructure, BARC is nearing completion of a four-year construction work plan (CWP). The CWP is a document created with the assistance of a third-party engineering consultant that evaluates the entire BARC system. This evaluation identifies areas within the BARC system that are recommended to upgrade, replace or build (new) infrastructure. The detailed report provides BARC management with a comprehensive cost analysis that identifies current cost expectations to complete each project. Typically, a CWP will contain substation transformer replacements, substation improvements, distribution feeder upgrades, new feeders to split loads, equipment placements within existing infrastructure to improve voltage quality or better coordinate the system behavior to isolate faults, and replacement of aging infrastructure to meet more modern demands. Once the CWP is complete, it is presented to the BARC Board of Directors for approval. After approval, BARC will determine the most fiscally responsible manner that we can implement the CWP projects. This may include securing financing from lenders, such as the USDA Rural Utility Service, CoBank or National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation.

BARC has experienced very little load growth over the past several years. This is due, in part, to a very slow growth of new services being installed throughout the five counties but also due to the proliferation of energy-efficient appliances. This has translated into previously identified CWP projects being deferred due to shifting priorities based on the current needs of the entire BARC Electric system.

On top of shifting priorities due to little-to-no load growth, the availability and cost of material and equipment has impacted our ability to execute projects in our previous CWP. I am not a big fan of blaming the COVID-19 effect on everything, but for our specific industry, the electric utilities have experienced a shocking impact to the cost of all material/equipment and an even greater impact to the lead times to obtain major equipment like power transformers and voltage regulators. As stated previously, BARC has worked off a CWP that covers four years of planned projects. Since COVID-19, the electric utility industry has experienced costs that more than quadrupled for items such as transformers and voltage regulators. In addition, the lead times have grown from weeks to years. The added cost and increased lead times have caused BARC to postpone many projects and to carry them over to our new CWP. The new CWP considers these new lead times and costs so BARC can establish a timeline and budget to prioritize system improvements for the next four years.

One of those projects is the rebuild of the circuit originating from the Hot Springs substation. This will add an additional circuit to split the load that is presently the Hot Springs area (not including the Homestead) and BARC members going south on Rte. 220, which includes the Ashwood, Tinkertown and Carloover areas. This, coupled with a substation power transformer upgrade that is also in the new CWP, will increase the capacity of the Hot Springs substation that will allow additional load growth for new residential units and businesses.

Something that greatly helps BARC and our long-term planning is for project developers to consult with us early in the development process. Preferably more than a year in advance to allow ample time to consider system improvements that may need to be implemented in order to provide service to a new load center and have as little impact on the current BARC Electric members as possible. If new major equipment is needed, that timeline can be two or more years to obtain.

Additionally, there are times when a major development project has been adequately planned with BARC and, at the time the project was originally presented, there was more than enough capacity available. But, as BARC has experienced, some projects under development start but never come to full fruition and are left unfinished for many years. When those projects are picked up again — possibly years later — the BARC system has not sat idle and reserved capacity for a project that “may” be completed. Even with the minor load growth BARC has experienced can result in available capacity decreasing by 7.5-15% over the course of 5-10 years. That may not sound like much, but a 7.5-15% capacity impact on a 10-MVA (10,000 kW) substation like Hot Springs, means 750 kW to 1,500 kW of new load growth has occurred.

In closing, your BARC team is committed to effectively and responsibly maintaining and improving the BARC Electric system for all 13,000-plus members across the five counties we serve. After all, this is your electric cooperative, and we are here to serve you. Improvement is a continuous effort that will never end, so it is our job to constantly monitor the health of the system and direct our efforts to the highest priorities as we see them.

Sincerely,

Chris Botulinski

Chief Operations Officer

BARC Electric Cooperative