In the Portland area, PGE has developed three Reliability Centers to serve businesses with high reliability requirements. The Centers serve semiconductor plants, high technology operations and other industries and commercial operations that demand superior power quality and reliability.

The Reliability Centers meet or exceed the most stringent industry specifications. To ensure the highest standards are met, PGE monitors power quality closely and provides quarterly performance reports (PDF).

PGE’s design criteria for these Centers features full redundancy at each level of the power network: transmission lines, substation transformers and feeders. In the event of any equipment failure, the redundant component will pick up the full load requirement.

Of course, there is always the possibility an outage or major voltage drop will occur on our grid. To minimize the potential impacts, customers may need to have other equipment within their facilities. We will work with you to identify and address those needs.

Unique features
PGE Reliability Centers offer these key advantages:

• Each is served by three independent 115 kV transmission lines configured to provide full redundancy and outage protection.
• Substations are sized to serve projected loads with redundant transformation ensuring reliability.
• Beyond the substation, industry is served by redundant underground distribution systems connected to the customer’s delivery point.
• Portland City Center is served by a Network Distribution System providing reliability through an interconnected distribution system served by multiple transmission feeds.

Hillsboro: Sunset Reliability Center
The Sunset Reliability Center was designed and built to meet the demanding requirements of several semiconductor fabrication facilities, including Intel’s Ronler Acres site, and other high tech customers in the vicinity. This substation is served by:

• Three 115 kV transmission lines connected to a breaker and one half bus. Transmission lines include a pilot wire providing high-speed transfer trip technology clearing a fault within six cycles. A fault occurring in any two of the three lines will not result in an outage.
• Two 28 MVA and three 50 MVA transformers in the station are configured to provide full redundancy. The station is designed to accommodate four 115 kV lines and eight transformers.
• 13 kV feeders serve high tech customers through redundant underground distribution.
• The substation uses metal clad switchgear to minimize exposure to outages from birds and squirrels

Gresham Reliability Center
The Gresham Reliability Center was designed and built to meet the demanding requirements of a semi-conductor fabrication plant. The substation is served by:

• Three 115 kV transmission lines connected to a ring bus. Transmission lines include a pilot wire design providing high-speed transfer trip technology clearing a fault within six cycles. A fault occurring in any two of the three lines will not result in an outage.
• There are presently two 28 MVA distribution transformers configured to provide full redundancy. The station is designed to accommodate three 50 MVA transformers.
• 13 kV feeders serve the facility underground and are fully redundant.
• The substation uses metal clad switchgear to minimize exposure to outages from birds and squirrels.

Portland: Downtown Network Reliability Center
The Downtown Network was designed and built to meet the demanding requirements of a high-density commercial urban area. A network is a secondary voltage grid energized by multiple transmission lines, substation transformers and parallel distribution. Networks eliminate outages or voltage fluctuations caused by exposure to nature, traffic, or minor equipment failure. Unlike radial feeder systems, customers connected to the network are not dependent on a specific transformer or feeder. The systems includes:

• The Canyon and Stephens substations.
• Canyon has three 115 kV lines connected to a modified transmission bus serving three Network systems with 12 distribution feeders, four per network.
• Stephens has three 57 kV lines to a simple transmission bus serving one Network system with eight distribution feeders.
• At each substation two of the three transmission lines can be taken out of service without effecting network reliability or voltage.
• Two underground networks in the downtown core, one operates at 480 volts, the other at 208 volts.
• Any one feeder or combination of transformers can be taken out of service without effecting the secondary system and voltage.

Overview of Reliability Centers
PGE’s Reliability Centers are located in Hillsboro, Gresham, and Portland:

PGE Reliability Centers

Distribution & siting assistance
Considering relocating a facility? PGE will provide quick answers to your questions about energy, distribution, services or energy deregulation in Oregon. Our assistance includes evaluation of a future corporate customer’s operating requirements, packaging the appropriate service solutions within our portfolio of regulated and unregulated products and services, and connecting to PGE’s distribution system. PGE integrates with all utility service providers and local political jurisdictions to determine the best location to meet your needs.

Contact us
For more information on PGE’s Reliability Centers, call 503-464-7694 or e-mail us.