New $12M electrical facility dedicated

NORTH GLENDALE — City officials gathered Monday to celebrate a $12 million renovation of a electrical substation that utility officials say will increase the system’s reliability.

The improved Glorietta substation, which serves roughly 6,000 customers in north Glendale neighborhoods including , has increased capacity that will allow more power to flow through the system, increasing the utility’s ability to meet customer demand, officials said.

“That’s why we do things like this, to maintain and improve reliability,” Glendale Water & Power General Manager Glenn Steiger said Monday to city officials and area residents gathered near the new facility. “This will do that in spades.”

The City Council in 2009 approved a roughly $12-million contract with Beta Engineering LLC for the demolition and replacement of the existing substation, which was built in the 1950s.

The facility is one of 13 electric substations that serve as middle points between the high-voltage source of the power and electric lines.

Utility officials have said the Glorietta substation upgrade

will create a station compatible with neighboring substations to assist in restoration of power during outages and emergencies affecting customers served by the Montrose, Rossmoyne and Glorietta feeders.

The new substation, which will serve residents in the Verdugo Woodlands and Montecito Park neighborhoods among others, will also be the first in the city to become integrated within the city’s new Smart Grid system, which Steiger said would also help speed detection of power outages.

“This is a real leap forward in technology and just how we do business on the electric side,” he said.

Mayor Ara Najarian lauded the facility’s innovative design, which was formulated to help it blend into the residential neighborhood as opposed to the previous iteration, which Najarian described as “a nasty mishmash of wires and insulators.”

“It really doesn’t look like a substation at all,” he said.

After Monday’s ceremony, those in attendance were given a chance to tour the new facility, which is set to be fully operational Tuesday.