Otter Tail Power

The line to Great Bend (in the back) is fairly nondescript, but the original line along this alignment was THE first electric utility line in North Dakota to have a 'Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity' issued once the North Dakota Board of Railroad Commissioners (predecessor to the present Public Service Commission) gained authority over all the electric utilities in the state. The original likely got rebuilt during either the 1920s expansion phase or during the push to modernize the system in the 1950s.

Original picture: www.ipernity.com/doc/ndlinegeek/18862819 Seems the distribution has recently been upgraded from 7200V CGD as the branch heading south is new. It was a bummer to see the KPFs gone and the sub upgraded to full 3-phase. At least there's another nearly identical one at Selz (and that sub is wood). The splices on the 115kV pole carrying the distribution is where the original 41.6kV/7200V CGD sub stood.

I swung by Lake Preston to see if anything changed since my last trip through the area a while back. Everything appeared unchanged, but the scarce (if not rare) GE Form 109 streetlight has since given way to a NEMA standard light. :-|

An old heavy transformer bank apparently abandoned in place in favor of the newer transformer up above.

The schoolhouse transformer pole, minus the transformer.

Looks like Otter Tail reclaimed all the idle transformers and retired long-idle services in this 'ghost town'. www.ipernity.com/doc/ndlinegeek/18591369 Sure would have liked to be there when that Autovalve came down!

As part of some in-progress improvements to strengthen its northeast South Dakota system, the company added a capacitor bank, and I'd thought the entire substation would be torn out and replaced, but they only added on to the east end of the structure... they STILL have that ridiculous method of terminating the north 41.6kV circuit!

The lone 3-phase load in town; serving a farmer's grain drying and storage equipment.

Another view of the pole. The reason for the yellow paint is it doubles as one of the field's foul-line poles!