To meet the growing electric demand on the Bolivar Peninsula, Entergy Texas has developed a project to improve reliability and increase the load serving capability.

The peninsula is currently supported by a single 34.5kV sub-transmission feeder from High Island substation that serves Blue Water and Sandy Shores substations with limited contingency tie opportunities. The existing substations are unable to serve long-term load growth, which contributed to recent peak overload conditions.

The Bolivar Peninsula reliability project is part of our ongoing efforts to improve service. A combination of new construction and equipment upgrades will address the load growth increase and improve grid reliability. Two new substations (Palms and Port Bolivar) will be built, and the High Island substation will be upgraded with a new bay and additional transformer. Bluewater and Sandy Shores reclosers will be updated, and the five substations will be interconnected to the existing radial feed.

Approximately six miles of new underground circuit and 19 miles of new overhead circuit will be connected to the two existing substations (Bluewater and Sandy Shores) and the two new substations (Palms and Port Bolivar). Multiple self-healing networks and redundant feeds will also help support the peninsula’s reliability and expected load growth for the foreseeable future.