Atlantic Electric Unveils Phase Two Plan For Stone Harbor Borough Council

STONE HARBOR – In July 2016, Atlantic City Electric (ACE) completed an infrastructure project on Seven Mile Island that included a new substation at 60th Street in Avalon and giant galvanized steel poles carrying 69KV transmission lines moving electricity to the substation.
It was a project that provoked resistance in the Borough of Stone Harbor, sparking a lawsuit and playing a role in municipal elections. That was phase one.
Phase Two
Phase two of the utility’s infrastructure project was the subject of a presentation by ACE representatives at the Sept. 5 Stone Harbor Borough Council meeting.
The utility is preparing to upgrade the island’s distribution system, that portion of the electrical system that distributes power to homes and businesses. This time utility representatives have a plan they hope will not spark any of the controversies that resulted from the phase one installations.
The Plan
This plan calls for two main distribution system lines running north and south from the 60th Street, Avalon, substation. The one moving north, labeled the Avalon Ocean Feeder, will have construction begin in October and run through December 2017.
The south line, called the Hereford Feeder, will be constructed between February 2018 and May 2018, with the utility promising it will complete the work before the start of next summer.
An earlier plan to move the distribution system down First Avenue had met with opposition in October when ACE held a public hearing on the proposed route for phase two.
This new presentation, largely given by the ACE project leader, Greg Domsic, sought to limit that opposition by changing the plan so that the distribution system in Stone Harbor uses the same pole infrastructure put in place for the transmission system, the steel poles.
Hereford Feeder
The proposed route for the Hereford Feeder within the borders of Stone Harbor will be south along the string of metal poles that carry the transmission current north to the substation. Once the new feeder system reaches the end of the metal pole infrastructure, it will use existing distribution infrastructure including the underground infrastructure that is already in place at the most southern end of the borough.
Responding to a question from Council member Joan Kramar, Domsic said that only two new poles would be needed and they would be wood, not steel.
Two New Poles
The presentation was long on concept and short on details at this stage. ACE was not yet able to say where the two new poles would be located.
Noting that some other existing wooden poles may need to be replaced with newer, more resilient wooden poles, the plan does not yet have detail sufficient to identify where the pole replacements would occur or in what quality.
One thing that was clear in the presentation is that the new wooden poles, wherever they may be used, could be five to seven feet taller than the existing wooden poles they replace.
More Detail Pledged
ACE’s goal in this presentation was to get the planned route out for public reaction. It promised more detail as construction moved closer in February.
The benefits of the new distribution system to customers on the island include a “segmentation of customer load,” meaning smaller, more localized outages when a problem arises.
The new system will also achieve the goal of having the entire island fed from the new substation. Currently, the south end of Stone Harbor is fed from the mainland via Court House. That gives the distribution system the benefit of the redundancy built into what presenters called “the state-of-the-art substation.”
Highlights
Unified distribution from the substation, operational flexibility for the utility, improved response to outages, segmentation of the load and better reuse of the existing infrastructure were the highlights of the ACE plan.
One topic that was not touched was the potential replacement of the overhead infrastructure, especially the steel poles that carry the transmission lines.
Borough Estimate?
Earlier this year, council discussed allocating funds in the 2018 budget to do an independent study of the costs of moving the electric power infrastructure underground within the borough.
That discussion was in reaction to an estimate from ACE that the borough would have to pay around $35 million to have the new infrastructure, carried by the steel poles, removed and buried.
That figure was only to reverse and bury the infrastructure for the new transmission system. It did not include the existing distribution system which is carried on wooden poles through most of the borough. 
Having the new distribution system carried on the steel-pole infrastructure would seem to make removal of the steel poles more costly.
Possibly Moot
That may be a moot point if the borough looks to “deconstruct” the entire electrical transmission and distribution system and bury the entire infrastructure. In that case, the distribution system had never been estimated anyway and was always going to be an additional cost.
An attempt to only deal with the use of steel poles, essentially reversing what was done in 2016 and placing only that infrastructure underground, may become more costly as an option with the phase two proposal.
How seriously the borough will pursue moving the infrastructure underground if its independent estimate concurs that it would require tens of millions in capital expenditure is unclear.
Owners Told
ACE planned an identical presentation before the Stone Harbor Property Owners Association Sept. 9. There was not much public comment at the meeting.
One homeowner warned the ACE representatives that the tone of the gathering with property owners was likely to be quite different than that at the council meeting.
“You have scarred this island forever,” he said. “It’s a disgrace.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.