Photo By Scott Sturkol | Contractors install underground power lines June 29, 2022, on the cantonment area at...... read more read more
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Since the start of 2022, Fort McCoy has been working to upgrade its electrical system to a more modern system.
In January and subsequent months, workers and linemen with contractors and energy provider Xcel Energy have worked at Fort McCoy on improving the system, said Brandon Gronau with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Operations and Maintenance Division Energy Branch.
“We — Fort McCoy and Xcel — are in the process of changing from a Delta Electrical System to a Wye Electrical System,” Gronau said in January. “The basics of that is just how the system is wired. Wye is a three-phase electrical system that uses a wire for each electrical leg and a separate neutral wire. Delta is also a three-phase, but uses one of the legs as the neutral so it only has three wires.”
Gronau said the energy provider wanted to do this because they are the installation’s electrical privatization contractor, and they own all of the electrical infrastructure on post.
“Delta can be an unreliable system and is outdated,” Gronau said. “We are the only Delta system that Xcel has in the state, so in order to standardize all of their equipment they made the decision to change us over, too.”
In June and July 2022, as part of the same upgrade, contractors have been busy installing underground electrical lines throughout the post.
“This is just a continuation of the work,” Gronau said. “It’s part of the change from overhead to underground electric and the switch to the Wye system. Work like the underground line installation will probably be going on out here for (awhile) as we go through this.”
In January when the system change was announced, Gronau said the change is good for the installation — especially for the future.
“Fort McCoy’s part in this is resiliency,” Gronau said. “Because Xcel is changing everything anyway, we decided that we wanted to move all of our overhead electrical that is inside the cantonment area underground as part of our move to making Fort McCoy more energy resilient. So it just makes sense to do it all at the same time. We opted to only do the cantonment area, so they were replacing the poles on South Post to upgrade the infrastructure to support the change.”
Work on the grid upgrades will continue during 2022 and beyond, Gronau said.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
| Date Taken: | 07.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.24.2022 01:25 |
| Story ID: | 425667 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Photo Essay: Work continues to upgrade Fort McCoy’s power grid to Wye Electrical System, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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