A lot has changed at the site of our soon-to-be third electric delivery point on Mills Road since last October, when it only housed equipment and supplies being saved from Hurricane Matthew flood waters. Now, construction on the site is about 95% complete and stocked with everything needed to supply reliable power to our customers.

Greenville Utilities is one of 32 members of the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA). NCEMPA purchases its power from Duke Energy Progress, who maintains the transmission facilities needed to get the supply to our two (and soon to be three) 230-kv Point of Delivery (POD) substations. The electricity comes into our system at a very high transmission voltage and continues to be reduced at our various substations before ultimately arriving to customers.

The existing 230-kv POD substations are located on MacGregor Downs Road (230-kV West POD) and on Mumford Road (Main POD), across from our Operations Center. The third POD (230-kv South) is being constructed on Mills Road near Highway 43 South. A lot of progress has been made by our crews and contractors since the start of this year (see photos for more details).

Our Main POD on Mumford Road was flooded during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, exposing the vulnerability of having only one delivery point. So the second POD at MacGregor Downs was built in 2002, giving our electric system a higher rate of reliability year-round, in addition to providing extra redundancy during storms and in flood situations like Hurricanes Floyd and (just last year) Matthew.

For a number of years, the Electric Department's long-range planning has recognized the need for additional POD capacity to enhance reliability of delivery and support long-term system growth. The construction of this new POD facility was targeted to take advantage of the new Duke Energy Progress Greenville-Kinston-Dupont 230-kV transmission line built in 2015. Construction of the new POD is scheduled to wrap-up in early 2018.