Electric Co-op Today

Three times since 1931, a Washington state electric cooperative has overhauled a three-quarter of a mile submarine cable serving island consumer-members. 

Officials from Peninsula Light Co. celebrate the grand opening of an underwater submarine cable. (Photo By: Ron Finney)

This year, Peninsula Light Company, Gig Harbor, replaced the cable for what it hopes will be the last time. 

PenLight, as locals call it, marked the project’s completion recently with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate this feat of engineering, which involved drilling 30 feet to 70 feet under the Puget Sound’s seabed to the mainland. 

“This project was completed on time and under budget,” said Jafar Taghavi, CEO of PenLight, in a YouTube video about the $2.5 million project. “It is unique, and I’m very impressed. And I’ve been in the business for a long time.” 

For Replacement No. 4, PenLight used a technique called horizontal directional drilling, which involved boring under the Puget Sound’s seabed to the mainland and installing a conduit to house the new cable to protect it from sea water. 

“We looked at the cost of doing it the traditional way, laying it across [the bottom of] Puget Sound,” the current installation method, said Jonathan White, the co-op’s director of member services and marketing. 

“Or, we could drive a bore from the mainland to the island under the Sound’s salt water seabed,” White said. “It cost a bit more money and took longer, but it’s done. We’ll never have to run a cable on the seabed again.” 

While it’s true that the new cable eventually will give out—about 50 years from now—the replacement will last about 20 years longer than if the co-op copied the old construction mode. 

And upgrades will be a lot easier, too. That’s because the co-op will merely have to pull out the old electrical cable from the conduit and thread a new one through it. 

The project’s eight-month construction process resulted in another accomplishment for the co-op. Last year, PenLight won a $1 million federal smart grid grant to pay for two load-control programs that helped ease the strain on the old cable during construction. 

“We only have 1,700 members on Fox Island,” White said. “I think it says a lot about how co-ops are involved in the community. We felt that $2.5 million was a great investment in the community.”

Tags: Local Initiatives