Electric utility outlines undergrounding timeline, $12M capital plan and transformer replacement strategy

Jamie England, director of the Winter Park Electric Utility, told commissioners the utility serves about 16,000 customers across roughly nine square miles and is pursuing a long-term undergrounding program with a target to complete mainline primary and secondary underground work by 2030.

England said Winter Park has undergrounded roughly 107.7 miles to date and that residential service conversions and mainline conversions are at different stages. "Our goal of completion in 2030. We fully expect to meet that goal," he said. He described recent investments in system monitoring, an outage-management system, substation surveillance cameras and a substation maintenance and relay-testing contract.

On substations and transformer replacement, England said the city has five substation transformers, three of which are dated 2005 and have reached about 20 years of service. He estimated a typical large transformer order-to-delivery lead time of three to five years and rough unit pricing of about $3,000,000; the utility is preparing design specifications and seeking a project manager and engineering resources so it can order replacements early enough to avoid catastrophic failures.

England also described budgeting and capital projections: operating and reimbursements near $32 million with a forecast near $36 million the following year and capital spending about $12 million, including $9.06 million for underground conversion work next year. He said bulk power purchasing costs (contract renewal with OUC coming up) are the single largest driver of operating costs and will influence future rate discussions.

Commissioners asked about resiliency during storms, the benefit of undergrounding during Hurricane Milton, and how aging meters and conversion work affect rates. England said the utility will work to phase meter replacements and capital projects to moderate rate impacts while maintaining resiliency.