A New Transformer for Island Park Substation

Before the 750 volts of direct current electricity gets delivered to the third rail shoes of your train, the electricity goes through a long process before it can be delivered to the third rails.  One of the necessary aspects of third rail traction power systems is a network of substations every couple miles along the right-of-way.  For the most parts, substations aren't that noticeable.  If you look out the window in electric territory and pay close attention, you will see them every couple of miles along the way.

I'm sure many of us remember Fulton Avenue Substation failure on Metro-North's New Haven Line that caused several days worth of chaos for those riders (it's been only one in a series of unfortunate events for MNCR this yet, but I digress).  That incident showed us the kind of havoc that can erupt when just one substation goes down.  Now the New Haven line is powered by AC overhead wires and not DC third rail, so the systems are not exactly alike.  While a DC third rail substation going offline is not really an immediate concern, as DC third rail systems require a lot more substations that can pick up the slack if one goes on line, having less substations online reduces operating flexibility, and thus, when one goes offline, it is usually a good idea to get them back online as soon as possible.

On September 21, 2013, traction power transformer #2 failed at the Island Park Substation causing a fire that disrupted service for most of that day.  The fire was extinguished and service was restored through the area around 4:00pm that day.  The entire substation did not fail, only one of the two transformers.  Needless to say, with one of the transformers out, the remaining transformer now has to bear the entire load through Island Park and therefore is more prone to failures (failures which can cause service disruptions).  Extra load on the other transformer also reduces the viable service life of that transformer. 

Video of emergency responders responding to the fire at Island Park Substation. 
(Video credit: YouTube user 060661)

The type of transformer involved was a Dynapower UltraCast 4-megawatt 33-killovolt transformer.  This type of transformer is only used at the LIRR's Island Park and Valley Stream substations.  Transformers are rather expensive, with each one running about $300-grand, and the LIRR uses a wide variety of different transformers across its systems as different transformers were put into different substations as electrification was expanded/upgraded at different time periods across the railroad.  For this reason, the LIRR doesn't keep lots of $300,000 transformers laying around as spares, as it's just not practical.

When the transformer failed, there became an immediate need to replace the one at Island Park and the one at Valley Stream (since the cause of the failure at Island Park is still currently unknown, it would be in the best interest to replace the transformer's twin at Valley Stream so a dangerous (or even more dangerous) situation doesn't develop there.

At yesterday's LIRR Committee Meeting, the LIRR awarded a $620,000 contract to Virginia Transformer to replace the two Dynapower UltraCast transformers.  In accordance with the LIRR's process for emergency bids, they solicited informal bids from three qualified vendors.  Unlike the usual bidding process, where the lowest price is considered the most important factor, lead time also played a big role in this emergency procurement.  In the end, Virginia Transformer was able to produce the necessary transformers for the lowest price (at $310,000 each) and they will do it in the shortest amount of time (a roughly 14 week time).  The other bidders submitted bids that were only a couple thousand dollars more expensive, but the lead time was as high as 23 weeks.

Virgina Transformer will begin manufacturing the two new transformers shortly, and with any luck, the transformers will be on the property and in service around the end of March.  The outage has no impact on actual train service, though flexibility has been reduced due to the transformers being offline.

In the coming weeks, a third-party consultant will perform a root-cause analysis of the failed Dynapower Transformer at Island Park to see if legal action is warranted.  The $620,000 for the transformers will come out of the LIRR's Operating Budget.