The construction of the Hunt Lane substation is required to; improve reliability and reduce risk due to flooding conditions, support continued customer load growth, and improve reliability through replacement of aging substation infrastructure.

Residential and commercial development in the area surrounding the Marbach Rd substation has caused redistribution and concentration of floodwaters.  The Marbach Rd substation experienced significant flooding in 1998 and 2002.  With continued development of the area, it is anticipated that the risk and the severity of flooding events will increase.  The two recent flooding events caused interruption of service to customers, extended outages for cleanup and repair, and exposure to second-level events that could have caused additional customer outages.

As flooding severity increases, an extended Marbach Rd substation outage could result in additional and extended customer outages.  In particular, the area between Marbach, Bandera, Anderson and Cagnon would be at risk of no service for an extended period of time.

Over the next five years, continued development is expected in the area served by the Marbach Rd substation.  This additional development will increase the area’s electrical demand by approximately 17%.  An additional substation distribution transformer is required to meet demand levels in the year 2009.  Also, beginning in 2009, aging substation equipment, such as the switchgear supplied by transformers #2 and #3, will require replacement to ensure reliable operation.

The Hunt Lane substation will facilitate transfer of load-serving functionality from the Marbach Rd substation, effectively eliminating the risks associated with anticipated flooding.  The Hunt Lane substation will be constructed to accommodate the additional substation distribution transformer required for the increasing electrical demand of the area.  The Hunt Lane substation will also be constructed with newer equipment to replace the aging Marbach Rd substation equipment.  It is recommended to construct the new Hunt Lane substation by October 2009.