O&R Upgrades Mahwah Substation, Installs Smart Grids

Representatives from Orange & Rockland say improvements they’ve been making to the company's grid systems should improve the utility’s service throughout the summer, especially to customers in Mahwah, Ramsey, and surrounding towns.

According to O&R reps, the company recently completed a three-year upgrade project expanding its South Mahwah substation. The $7.6 million project added a new transformer and replaced the existing transformer with a higher capacity unit. The upgrades will allow for the substation, which serves about 7,000 customers in Mahwah, Ramsey, and Airmont, Suffern and Ramapo, NY.

The upgrades will “enable O&R to meet the load growth in the area and provide back up to neighboring stations,” O&R said in a release Thursday.

The upgrades at the Mahwah station are part of a $100 million upgrade project that extends throughout the utility’s service area. A newly-completed substation in West Nyack, NY includes the incorporation of “Smart Grid” circuits, technology designed to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the system.

Four additional Smart Grid circuits are due to go online in June at the Darlington Substation in Ramsey, and one more will be activated at the South Mahwah substation, the release said.

“These circuits represent the culmination of a three-year, $19.1-million U.S. Department of Energy–funded pilot program,” O&R announced in the release. “Both the New York and New Jersey new Smart Grid circuits are designed in 250-customer segments to minimize the number of customers interrupted by outages. They are equipped with communications features that permit them to notify O&R’s Control Center of any operational issues. The advanced Smart Grid technology allows the Control Center to address those issues remotely.”   

According to the utility, these upgrades combined with those at various stations throughout its service area will “both enhance reliability and quality of service.”

Mahwah Mayor Bill Laforet said he was pleased to learn of the upgrades’ status Thursday. Laforet said he hopes the improvements will help limit service interruptions during the impending hurricane season.

“The Mahwah Substation improvements, along with recent vegetation control measures, better positions Mahwah for the upcoming hurricane season,” he said. 

“We have learned valuable lessons from Irene, we begin to see implementation of what has been learned.” 

According to an npr.com report, the National Weather Service recently predicted an “extremely active” hurricane season along the east coast.

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