Benton Utilities (BU) is proud to announce plans to construct its second utility owned electric sub-station. The first sub-station the Utility built is located on Dale Ave by our main office. This station supplies 30 million watts of power to our city. It is capable of serving 1/3 of our total energy use. This station went on line in September of 2014. The second substation is scheduled to go on-line in late 2017!

This new sub-station will be located in the Northern Most part of Hurricane Lake Estates. This 10MVA substation will serve the growing needs of existing customers as well as future developments taking place now. Currently, BU purchases power from Entergy via a “metering point’. This means Benton buys power from Entergy, and re-sells it to customers in the housing addition. By building our own sub-station, BU will be able to dissolve our dependency on Entergy is this area and serve our customers in Hurricane Lake with more dependable and reliable service.

In the early ‘80s, when Hurricane Lake was being built, the design included the sub-station being built. Unfortunately, this did not take place. Benton has relied on Entergy for power in this area since the developments beginning. Now, 20 years later, our need has outgrown our supply. With phase eight underway, BU simply can’t depend on other Utilities to supply or needs.

The facilities studies have begun and Hestco Engineering LLC, a Benton based company, won the bid to provide the engineering. Hestco will be responsible for the design of the new station as well as the actual location of the station itself. There are still several studies to be done and agreements to be made, but we look for construction to begin in early 2017. This project is another example of our commitment to you, our customer, to provide the most reliable power, at the lowest possible cost.