Construction Complete On New GP&L Substation

Garland, Texas – August 4, 2006 – Garland Power & Light (GP&L) marked the completed construction of its Crist Road Substation today with an official ribbon cutting. This new substation, located in north Garland, will serve approximately 4,000 residential and commercial customers, including nearly one half of the Firewheel Town Center.

"This substation helps relieve the load which was previously supplied by the nearby Brand Substation,” said Paul Breitzman, GP&L’s Operations Administrator. “It also provides additional redundancy to our electric system, thereby increasing reliability of service to our customers.”

The Crist Road Substation is just the latest addition to the existing system by GP&L. The locally owned and operated municipal utility completed construction on its new Marquis Substation earlier this summer. The Marquis Substation is located in southwest Garland near the City's Industrial Park, and was built to meet load growth and to serve as backup to existing substations in that area.

These two new substations are an integral part of a dedicated program to expand and upgrade GP&L substations. "One reason we are undertaking this program is that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) requires that all transmission operators be able to move power anywhere on the grid," said Breitzman. "Our customers’ load requirements are growing, so we must plan more options in order to route adequate power to different areas in our service territory," he concluded.

Upgrades to the electric system's Brand Substation were completed earlier this year, and further upgrades to its Centerville Substation will be completed in the fall. Next year, work will begin on the Jupiter Substation.

Guests at today's ribbon cutting were City Manger, Bill Dollar, Councilman Jackie Feagin, and Utility Advisory Board Chairman Jim Hope.