The EEPC is an investor owned utility, with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It has a Board of Directors elected by the stockholders on a regular basis. Currently, several of the directors are served by the company, either at their residences or businesses. The company has been in business as the EEPC for more than 100 years and currently distributes more than 92% of the State’s power. Peak power demand for the State of Columbia is estimated at 7,500 megawatt (MW) during the summer under very humid conditions, after several extremely hot days.

The corporate headquarters are located near the intersection of 7th Street and I-107. This facility also houses the dispatch areas, customer services’ call center, construction and maintenance operations, and equipment, and supports all aspects of corporate operations.

The EEPC owns and operates 12 power generating stations. Five of these plants are low-head hydro-electric generation, four are natural gas co-generation, one has geothermal as a source of fuel, one is coal fired, and the remaining and largest single source of power is an aging nuclear facility.

The following hydro-generation facilities were all built around the same time and, to save in costs, are almost the same design. They each generate close to 300 MW and are connected into the transmission grid. As needed, power trading and supplementing, known as “wheeling” (purchasing and selling) takes place throughout the year.

• The East Lake hydro-generation facility is located in Liberty County at the East Lake Dam.
• The Alberto hydro-generation facility is located in Johnson County just north of the SR 20 Bridge over the Big Blue River.
• The Lowellan hydro-generation facility is located on the Roaring River in George County adjacent to Guilz Lake.
• The Richards hydro-generation facility is located in Lober County on the Lonely River, southwest of Cassel.
• The Raychev hydro-generation facility is located south of the confluence of the Turtle and Roaring Rivers, north of Fisherville.

The newest generation facility on the system is a 150 MW co-generation facility located in Central City that supplies steam to the nearby food processing facility. This is the Southern Company’s regional processing facility for the agricultural contract it holds nearby. Basic food stuffs processed here include sugar beets and sugar cane.

The co-generator located near the City of Tower Beach provides processing steam to the Bubba Shrimp Company facility next door. The plant is located between the Lonely River and Tower Beach. This is a 200 MW unit with a 50 MW peaker which can be brought on line during emergencies or peak periods.

Capital City has the largest co-generation facility in the State. This massive facility can produce more than 1,000 MW with the excess steam being used by the nearby automobile/truck assembly plants. This plant, the Pine Plant, was named for Pine County, the county in which it is located.

The Redstone-Kane plant is located near the political boundary separating Redstone and Kane Counties. Not quite as large as Pine, this plant has the total capacity to produce 750 MW. It consists of five 150 MW plants, three of which are base loaded and two of which are peaking plants.

The Blue Water Nuclear Generating Station is located twelve miles north of Central City off I 107. Now in its sixteenth year of operation, it seems to be suffering the same fate as its earlier cousins —the public does not think that it is safe.

The Blue Water nuclear generating station is a pressurized water reactor (PWR) that generates more than 1200 MW. Annual inspections have determined that the station is one of the safest in the United States.

Although operation of the Blue Water facility is closely monitored and regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), accidents are possible. An accident could result in dangerous levels of radiation that could affect the health and safety of the public living near the nuclear power plant.

Liberty County, Federal agencies, and the electric utilities have emergency response plans in the event of a nuclear power plant incident. The plans define two “emergency planning zones.” One zone covers an area within a 10-mile radius of the plant, where it is possible that people could be harmed by direct radiation exposure. The second zone covers a broader area, usually up to a 50-mile radius from the plant, where radioactive materials could contaminate water supplies, food crops, and livestock.

The potential danger from an accident at a nuclear power plant is exposure to radiation. This exposure could come from the release of radioactive material from the plant into the environment, usually characterized by a plume (cloud-like formation) of radioactive gases and particles. The major hazards to people in the vicinity of the plume are radiation exposure to the body from the cloud and particles deposited on the ground, inhalation of radioactive materials, and ingestion of radioactive materials.

The Blue Water PWR has three separate cooling systems. Only one is expected to have radioactivity—the Reactor Cooling System. This cooling system is located within the containment building. The schematic below shows the power generating process at the Blue Water PWR.

The Bald Mountain Geothermal Generating Station was named after the nearby mountain which is the center of the local geothermal activity. This is the only geothermal plant in Granite County and is located north of the town of Schwartz. Native American folklore has addressed many of the strange observations made near the plant. Science has yet to explain some of the observations.

The State of Columbia is working with multiple companies to bring alternative modes of generation to the state in terms of solar and wind generation. Currently, environmental impact studies are being conducted to place a wind farm on the Mineral Mountains and another along the coast near Tower Beach. A 150 acre solar farm is being constructed outside of Georgetown in Grand County that should be operational late next year. It is being built by private investors and will sell energy to the EEPC.

Operation of the system at 230 kV requires numerous transmission substations throughout the State to either step up the voltage for transmission or to step down the voltage for the distribution substations. Central City substations step the transmission voltages down to the sub-transmission and distribution substation voltages.

Two years ago, the EEPC installed fire and flood alarms in all the substations. If fire or flooding occurs, the operators can identify the substation and a trouble-man will then be dispatched to field- check the situation. In the event of a fire, the fire department is also notified and will respond.

Electrical energy is delivered to the customers using a wide variety of voltages. Distribution voltages include 34 kV, 12 kV, and 4 kV. Delivery to the meter (customers) is usually at 240 volts, but some larger customers with more demand receive 480 volt/three phase service. EEPC also delivers electricity to several customers at the higher levels, but these customers own their transformers and equipment.

Delivery is generally via overhead wires in the established, older parts of the system. In the newer residential, commercial, industrial, and environmentally sensitive areas, undergrounding has become the practice. (This costs more but increases reliability.)

Of special note is the fact that the delivery of power to Masland Island and the Gish Island National Wildlife Refuge is via towers paralleling the I-107 bridge to a small switchyard on Masland Island then to the preserve via a submarine cable from Bayport East.

The EEPC has chosen to build identical substations to serve load more efficiently. Within each substation are several transformers in a bank. These are generally 7.5 Megavolt Ampere (MVA) transformers, when fully loaded. Also available for use is a mobile (transportable) substation, containing several transformers and the corresponding equipment to allow the rerouting of power in the event of the loss of the substation. In the newer areas, or where the situation demands, the substations are built in a looped configuration for reliability purposes. The Liberty County feeder power grid includes both looped and radial configurations. Radial feeder power is present from Fisherville through Bayport to Gish Island. In addition, Casper Park and Van Deusen Park are both on radial distribution systems. In the more rural areas and older suburbs, the system generally is also a radial configuration, which has had reliability problems. The EEPC is currently looking at placing all feeder substations on a distribution network. A network would involve multiple paths between all points in the network. Networks provide continuity of service (reliability) far beyond radial and loop designs; if a failure occurs in one line, power instantly and automatically re-routes itself through other pathways.

Depending on the loads and the distance to the customers, the voltages leaving the substation will differ. All along the line are a number of pole-mounted fuses and transformers or pad-mounted transformers to reduce the voltages for proper delivery to the customer.

The fixed, base loaded generation, together with the peaking units and out-of-State imports of electricity, is designed to meet the expected peak demand of 7,500 MW. During normal, non-peak periods, the generation from the co-generation, hydro, nuclear, geothermal, and coal fired plants can meet the demand of the EEPC customers. Importing of electricity may take place to provide a savings in costs or to support the maintenance functions of the facilities.

The ITSO will control all transmission activities, including the operations of the system during response and restoration phases of emergencies or disasters. Using the established switchyards, electrical supplies to Central City can be transmitted from any (or all) of three directions. Also, with the new co-generation facility located in the city, internal generation exists. Load following equipment allows the generation to match the demand on the system. Should the generation fail at any specific site, the ITSO equipment will automatically shift the system to support the demand. All of the transmission substations and the switchyards have SCADA, which is monitored by the ITSO as well as the personnel in EEPC’s system dispatch offices.

In serious incidents where demand outpaces supply, protection equipment is designed to shed load at a predetermined frequency. Normal operations is at 60.000 Hertz (Hz), while the under frequency load shedding scheme kicks in at 59.900 Hz. If the need to shed load is instantaneous, equipment will protect the facilities by shedding the entire load until a balance is achieved. In a worse case scenario, this could be 100% of the customers, resulting in the need for implementation of the “black start” routine to get generation back on-line. In less serious cases, lesser numbers of customers will be shed in a rolling blackout fashion, to spread the burden across all the customers. If the loss of capacity or energy is predictable, the EEPC has a voluntary program requesting non- essential equipment be turned off to try to control the demand on the system.

As the city continues to grow, so does the demand. Currently the peak demand is estimated to be 750 MW, about 10% of the total peak demand of the State of Columbia.

In part of a continuous effort to improve customer service and reliability, the EEPC installed SCADA equipment in much of the distribution and transmission system. Forty-five out of the 60 substations in Liberty County have SCADA. In Central City, 25 out of the 30 distribution substations have SCADA. The few that do not have SCADA are located in areas that have a low load factor, are undergoing redevelopment, or for other reasons do not warrant the expenditure of funds at this time. (SCADA installation can cost up to $100,000 per substation, depending on the complexity of the system.)

Distribution level design includes both an overhead and an underground system. The distribution substations are configured two ways, in a radial system and in a looped system. Backing up the radial system is difficult and not always possible. In the newer residential subdivisions and the larger commercial and industrial areas, the distribution substation system is in a looped system. This allows a specific substation to be back-fed from a different side if the current supply side is interrupted. This increased reliability is welcomed by the commercial and industrial customers for fewer business interruptions and by the residential customers who forget how to reset all their sensitive electronic equipment equipped with clocks. Those residential customers with home businesses appreciate the fewer disruptions to their operations.

All switches controlled by the SCADA system are operated and monitored over telephone lines. Some data is received and some remote units can be monitored via radio data-links.