Dominion Power Upgrading Capacity on Kitty Hawk Road
By Kip Tabb –
NC Dominion Power crews upgrading transmission lines along Kitty Hawk Road.
When the wind is gentle from the south and the sun is shining, it’s easy to forget how harsh the Outer Banks environment can be. But the reality is that this environment is one of the harshest on the Eastern seaboard and constant maintenance and improvements are needed.
That’s why NC Dominion crews have been out in force along Kitty Hawk Road in Kitty Hawk for the past two weeks. More than simple maintenance, in this case, work the crews are doing will improve the Kitty Hawk Road substation and transmission lines along the road, according to Lee Rozier, Dominion Power Manager of Operations.
“We’re upgrading the facility inside and out,” Rozier says. “We’re being proactive to keep the lights on.”
The work will also enable the transmission lines to handle more power. “We’ll increase the capacity just be upgrading the system,” Rozier says. But the new equipment and the work the crews are doing will have another benefit.
“The work we’re doing will help us balance the load better,” Rozier notes.
Disruptions to traffic on Kitty Hawk Road have been minimal, although the work is a major undertaking. “This particular project is pretty big for any area,” Rozier says.
Part of an ongoing planning process at Dominion Power, Supervisor of Electric Distribution Operations, Chris DeCou, points out that the project is the visible part of a lot of planning. “A lot of the work we’re doing is part of a long time plan,” he says. “We should be done in the next two to three weeks,” he adds.
