Versant Power upgrades substation ahead of UMaine fall semester

On Thursday, Versant Power said it had updated one of its substations in advance of the University of Maine’s fall semester.

According to the company, it had updated equipment at UMaine’s Steam Plant substation which provides heating to 90 percent of the campus, as well as the Alfond Arena, Hotel Ursa and other campus buildings. The upgrades with improve service reliability to the steam plant, officials said.

“Upgrades like this are needed to update aging infrastructure as well as increase capacity for campus growth,” Blaine Williams, UMaine’s facilities director, said. “They will be needed for future electrification efforts required to achieve climate change goals, such as adding more car chargers and heat pumps on campus.”

Versant said crews replaced substation equipment, included a transformer, switchgear and insulators, that had reached the end of their useful lives. The substation also received new metering, giving the university more information in times of outages. The upgrades are designed to shorten outage duration and provide the school with more information about its electricity usage.

Working closely with the university, Versant said it was able to minimize disruptions while upgrading the plant over the summer. The substation was connected to a mobile substation to reduce impacts to campus life, officials said.

“It was important for us to get this work complete before the start of the fall semester,” said Versant’s Power Systems Technical Supervisor Kevin Worster. “This work will improve service reliability to students, employees, and anyone who visits the UMaine Orono campus.”

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