News

Wisconsin Public Service completed the pole riser work at Northport on Friday, February 8th.  We went on engines at approximately 7:30AM and were on them until the work was complete.  We did final phase testing as well as testing the cable itself all the way from Northport to the Island and then energized the cable up to our substation.  We allowed the new cable sit hot for approximately thirty minutes before closing in the substation transformer

Several months have gone by again, and with so much happening it only seems like days. While waiting for permitting, we received preliminary approvals from the Department of Natural Resources, the United States Corps of Engineers and the United States Coast Guard to move forward.

A couple months have passed since our last communication and there has been a whole lot that has taken place during that time.  

First and foremost, we were given permission by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to cross Plum Island.

Disaster declared in power cable failure
Agencies directed to assist

JULY 13, 2018, Washington Island, WI…..Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker today issued a disaster declaration requested by Washington Island Electric Cooperative, directing state agencies to assist with ongoing repair and mitigation activities arising from damage to an underwater power cable that left the roughly one thousand members of the state’s smallest electric co-op dependent on backup generation for nearly two weeks.

With the existing faulted cable temporarily repaired, we want to continue the communication regarding the installation of a replacement cable.

With the exception of some final housekeeping items, the repair portion of this project is now complete.

The first splice is complete and will be lowered to the bottom this morning (Wed).  The other end of the cable will be brought to the barge and the second splice will begin.

We wanted to give you another brief update to let you know where we are with the situation.

Fabick Cat has completed repairs on Engine #8 and both engines have been test ran and are available to carry the Island’s load.

A lot has happened since our last communication.  This one will be quite brief due to the fact that there is still a whole lot going on.  It also will not necessarily be sequential information because many of the things listed were happening at the same time or are being listed together because they are related.

As you may or may not have heard by now, on June 15, 2018 at approximately 2:22 AM we lost power from the mainland.  Power was restored to the Island with our diesel engines at 2:48 A.M. and troubleshooting the problem began.