Modernizing a critical substation to unlock regional infrastructure growth
We helped a Midwest utility move from aging infrastructure to modern control through a substation expansion that eases a bottleneck and supports growing load.
A Midwest investor‑owned utility faced mounting reliability risk and growth constraints from an aging substation serving critical loads. Combining advanced engineering and 3D design, we helped to increase capacity, improve reliability, and enable future infrastructure development, finishing six weeks ahead of schedule.
Challenge
A critical substation at a Midwest investor‑owned utility was operating beyond its design life, with equipment that was increasingly unreliable despite routine maintenance. Troubleshooting required manual intervention and on‑site crews, driving up cost and response time. The substation was increasingly a bottleneck for commercial and industrial growth and affected dependent assets, including a facility serving a large hospital. Traditional approaches—often centered on 2D drawings—struggle to keep pace with modern complexity and speed requirements. The utility needed to modernize quickly, maintain service continuity, and meet a tight schedule to avoid seasonal construction delays.
Substations are no longer passive assets; they are critical enablers of regional growth, resilience, and reliability. As such, the comprehensive approach to expansion and modernization needed to balance speed, constructability, reliability, and coordination across multiple stakeholders.
Solution
We led an end‑to‑end substation expansion and modernization:
Design and engineering
We engineered a new 345/138 kV ring bus substation to increase capacity and reliability; replaced aging equipment and added new feeders, transmission connections, and modern control systems; and delivered full 30/60/90/IFC design packages to support construction readiness.
Modern control and coordination
Our team upgraded protection, relaying, communications, and control house infrastructure. We also modernized remote‑end equipment to improve system coordination and reduce operational burden.
Constructability and speed
Using 3D design tools (including AutoCAD and Inventor 3D) to verify clearances, materials, and constructability, we enabled construction teams to work faster and reduce field‑level surprises compared with 2D‑only approaches.
Lifecycle continuity
Built on earlier ICF transmission planning and asset analysis work, our team delivered continuity across planning, design, and execution.
Results
First and foremost, the region gained a level of power delivery capability that did not previously exist. The upgraded substation now supports higher loads, improved reliability, and greater system uptime. This allows the utility to better connect large customers, manage interconnection requests, and respond to natural disasters.
Our ability to integrate planning, advanced modeling, and detailed engineering supported our successful end‑to‑end solution. As a result of utilizing previously developed standards for this type of equipment engineering, we were able to hand off the project to the construction company on time and under budget. We also ordered long lead time materials at the very start of design, which allowed delivery within expected timeframes and construction to start before winter conditions prevented new concrete and underground excavation from hampering the schedule. The end result was a project that finished six weeks ahead of schedule.