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St. Peter celebrates new transformer; project came in several hundred thousand dollars under budget
Summary
City officials marked a ribbon-cutting for a replacement transformer that officials say will improve electric reliability; staff reported the project came in roughly $400,000 under the $2 million budget.
City officials at the Feb. 24 council meeting recapped a ribbon-cutting for a new electrical transformer that replaced an aging unit and, city staff said, came in substantially under budget.
City staff and council members said the transformer project had been under development for more than five years. Council member Brad said the project came in several hundreds of thousands under the $2 million budgeted amount, estimating the final cost at roughly $1.6 million. He also relayed a statistic attributed to Jason Lee, the city’s electric superintendent, that about 82% of the city’s recent power outages were caused by squirrels interfering with the old substation equipment.
Officials noted the old transformer had served the community for decades (one speaker referenced an age of about 65 years) and called the replacement an important infrastructure investment for reliability. The council took no formal action on the ribbon-cutting; remarks were offered as part of the city administrator’s report.
