Pepco Capital Grid Video Transcript
As the primary energy provider in the Capital area, we have a responsibility to deliver safe and reliable energy to our customers. The Capital Grid Project is an integrated solution that helps strengthen the Capital area electric system over the long term, promoting enhanced reliability and resiliency. Through this Project, we are continuing our purposeful work, delivering on our promise to provide safe and reliable energy to our customers, and acting on our commitment to continually driving our communities forward.
The Capital Grid Project is a forward-looking plan that, if approved, will:
Upgrade three existing Pepco substations in the District and Maryland
Construct a new substation to serve an area in the District experiencing rapid growth and development
Create a networked system by installing approximately 10 miles of underground transmission cable
The Project is a solution that resolves many needs in the Capital area and results in a modernized system that can withstand and recover from unforeseen events, such as severe storms or equipment failure. In addition, there are several long-term benefits for our customers in the Capital area including:
Enhancing Reliability
Upgrading the Takoma, Harvard and Champlain Substations will involve replacing aging equipment with new equipment that has more capacity to meet the long-term energy needs of the areas served by the substations now and in the future
Updating the substation facilities to accommodate the new equipment
Improving System Redundancy and Resiliency
Much of the Capital area receives power from point-to-point or “radial” transmission lines that terminate in the area they serve. These lines provided a “backup” supply, or redundancy within the Capital area when they carried electricity to customers from local power generation, but those generation plants have since been retired
Installing underground transmission cable will create a networked system allowing power to be supplied through a number of paths and build in additional flexibility to minimize the impact should severe weather, equipment failure or an unforeseen event occur
Support Growth of Renewable Energy
By increasing substation and transmission capacity, the Capital Grid Project will also increase the electric system’s capacity to accommodate more customer-generated power, such as rooftop solar
Even with recent goals set to increase the amount of renewable energy generated within the District, 95% of the electricity needed to serve the District of Columbia will come from sources outside its borders. As these neighborhoods grow, our system will need to continue to accommodate the growing needs of the communities. The proposed substation will deliver power directly to these communities and provide relief to other nearby substations.
Enable Economic Development
Supporting residential and business growth in the Capital area
Expanding procurement opportunities for local, minority, women, veteran and disabled contractors for Project work
Before construction can begin, however, we must receive regulatory approval. We submitted the first of two formal filings to the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (PSC). We filed our proposal with the PSC in May 2017 and await the PSC’s review and decision. We anticipate construction will begin in 2018. We have divided the Project into two filings to address the pressing need to upgrade aging infrastructure and to receive authorization to begin that work more quickly. We also must submit our proposal for review and approval to the Board of Zoning Adjustment. The proposed timeline is included in our Capital Grid Project fact sheet
We are committed to coordinating with local partners and governing agencies to minimize the impact on businesses, traffic and parking, or other possible disruptions.
Email: CapitalGrid@Pepco.com
Join the Conversation: Follow @PepcoConnect on Twitter and Facebook. Use the hashtag #CapGrid.
