EPHRATA — Grant County PUD will be building two new substations and upgrading five more by the end of 2017. Construction will cost a maximum of $23.9 million.

The PUD has adopted a new way to build and fix substations, where the whole project is designed and built by the same company to PUD specifications. Andrew Munro of the PUD said utility district officials decided to use the design-build system as a way to speed up the process.

The PUD had been looking at a backlog extending up to five years to finish current substation projects and requests, Munro said at the April 12 meeting of PUD commissioners. The design-build system is projected to cut the construction time to about 18 months.

Commissioner Bob Bernd asked if the upgrades to the existing substations would affect customers. Mark Milacek, a PUD engineer said substations would be shut down while work is ongoing, but electricity would be routed through other substations. There shouldn’t be any service interruptions.

Substations at Babcock and Peninsula have old equipment that’s being replaced, Munro said. The substation at Nelson Road will be expanded. Substations in Coulee City and at Winchester are at beyond capacity and are being upgraded to improve their reliability. The two new substations, Quincy Plains and Cloudview, are both in the Quincy area.

The Quincy Plains substation is being built for an industrial customer, and will serve that one customer, Munro said. The Cloudview substation is being built at the request of one customer, but has room for two additional industrial customers.

Construction on the Nelson Road project will begin next month and is projected to be completed in September. Construction on the Babcock substation begins in June and should be completed in October. The Peninsula substation project begins in July and is scheduled for completion in November.

Coulee City substation construction starts in August and should be completed by May 2017. The Cloud View construction is scheduled to begin in October and be completed by August 2017. Construction at the Winchester substation is scheduled for October 2016 to May 2017, and construction for Quincy Plains starts in November and should be completed by August 2017.

Commissioner Dale Walker asked of the construction costs for the new substations, and who pays which portion. Munro replied most is being paid by the customer. Commissioner Larry Schaapman said the customer pays 75 percent of the construction cost for the first $850,000, and the customer pays the entire cost after that.

Walker asked about the cost structure. Reliability is important for all customers, he said, but especially for the large industrial class. He asked how the costs associated with improving reliability are allocated to customer classes.

Munro said the upgrades of the four substations and expansion at Nelson Road would be required anyway, so building them in sequence will cut the cost and shorten the timeline.

Assistant general manager Kevin Nordt, who takes over as general manager in June, explained those questions about cost allocation, and whether one set of ratepayers is picking up costs that should be charged to somebody else, is better suited for the discussions on rates. Those discussions are ongoing and will continue during the summer, Nordt added.