Submitted photo The switchgear equipment in the New Ulm power plant’s cooling tower will be upgraded and relocated over the next year. The switchgear will be placed in an enclosure, built adjacent to the cooling tower for a more suitable climate control atmosphere.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Public Utilities Commission authorized the replacement of obsolete equipment, including switching gear in the New Ulm power plant cooling tower.

The current 480-volt/1600-amp switchgear in the power plant cooling tower is about 40 years old and exceeds its useful life. Public Utilities plans to replace and relocate the switch gear.

The current location in the cooling tower has a damp atmosphere that caused corrosion on and within the switchgear. Utility Engineer Dan Persig said the plan is to relocate the switchgear to an enclosure to be built adjacent to the cooling tower to get it into a more suitable climate-control atmosphere.

This switchgear is part of the power plant generation. The new design will include redundancy with two feeders able to feed the switchgear while adding the ability to select feeders remotely.

Public utilities has budgeted for the design of the new equipment this year. Installation will take place next year.

Cost of the design is $46,500. This quote does not include the design and construction of a small building, which will be quoted separately.

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The commission approved a proposal from Power System Engineering, Inc. (PSE) to oversee the replacement of the remote terminal unit (RTU) at the north side and power plant substation. The cost of the plan and replacement is $198,000.

The current RTU was considered to be “beyond obsolete”. It was originally designed in 1996 and the current system is no longer supported, and its components are no longer available after 2013.

The software does not work on any computers with an operating system newer than Windows XP. The XP operating system has some significant security flaws and is being replaced industry-wide.

Last year the Center Street and Fort Ridgely substations were upgraded. The Fort Ridgely substation is currently in the process of being updated. The update to the north side substation should be completed in 2023. The south side substation is scheduled to be updated in 2025.

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The commissioner approved a resolution to request funding support and sponsorship for the Front Street Gravity Sewer Main project to be brought before the 2023 Minnesota legislative session for inclusion in the Capital Investment Bonding Bill or general fund financing.

City Manager Chris Dalton said most of this project is completed, but the last portion will require capital improvements. The bonding would cover the last 20% of the project.

Persig said this section of the project includes a lift station that has reached the end of its life. Rehabilitating the lift station would require significant costs. The better option was to eliminate the lift station and continue the gravity sewer.

By eliminating the lift station, maintenance costs and energy costs would be reduced. Persig said the other benefit of gravity sewer is gravity always works. With a lift station, there is always a possibility of a breakdown.