Cost of transformers have gone sky high

Chris Terrell, the manager of Wake Forest Power, said last Friday during the town board retreat at the Renaissance Centre that the price of electric transformers has gone from about $3,764 each with a lead time of 12-plus weeks to $25,567 each with a lead time of 140-plus weeks.
Wake Forest Power can see that developers will build about 1,500 units in apartments and nursing/care homes in the next two years, meaning Wake Forest Power will have to provide between 12 and 15 transformers at each apartment or care complex. The transformers are necessary to step down the power in the town transmission lines.
Chief Financial Officer Aileen Staples and Town Manager Kip Padgett said the increase in transformer costs and other costs mean Wake Forest Power will have to request a rate increase in the near future. Staple’s question to the five town commissioners was whether they would rather see small increases more frequently or one or two larger increases, and the commissioners indicated they would prefer the smaller increases.
Terrell said the town utility continues to work to keep electric rates in town stable and as low as possible. One method is by switching to power generated at large businesses like Walmart, a switch which means the town has to purchase less electricity from Duke Power during a time they anticipate a month’s highest usage. By doing so one time recently Wake Forest Power saved “about $220,000.” Also, during peak times the operators can lower the voltage from 120 to 118, a difference customers will not notice.
Terrell also said, to answer a question many town residents had asked themselves, “We are doing all we can to keep the (town) substations protected.” There was just a report days ago about another attack on a Moore County substation, but this one did not result in any outages. The commissioners had information in their retreat notebooks about the steps Wake Forest Power is taking to protect the substations, and they are sworn to keep the secrets.
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