Kevin Riordan: A transmission upgrade so hot, it's cool

"Everything here is hot," project manager Steve Maginnis warns, ushering me into the 138-kilovolt heart of the Cuthbert Substation.

"Don't touch anything," senior construction supervisor Rich Sost affably, but firmly, advises.

Trust me, there will be no touching. At 138,000 volts, the stream of electrons coursing through the place dwarfs the biggest electrical shock of my life so far - delivered by a Christmas tree in 1960.

Besides, I don't want to blow my chance for a close look at this pivotal site on Hampton Road in Cherry Hill, where elements of two regional power transmission upgrade projects, together worth about $800 million, meet.

In August, workers began assembling an intricate, silvery grid of steel and aluminum; installing an array of seven-ton transformers; and testing circuit breakers that call to mind classic sci-fi.

When an upgraded and expanded Cuthbert is energized next June, it will have a capacity of 230kV. In other words, more juice for our digital doodad chargers and flat-screen TVs and AC units.

"The system will be more robust, and reliability will be increased," says Maginnis, 61, who grew up in Audubon, Camden County, and has been a power professional for 34 years.

As heavy construction equipment roars and boots crunch the rust-colored gravel, Maginnis and Sost, who together have 60 years in the business, talk about the big picture.

The upgrade was recommended in an evaluation of future demand by the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland interconnection. The PJM is headquartered in Norristown and oversees the transmission of power among utilities in 13 states.

Public Service Electric & Gas' Cuthbert work is tied into the upgrading of substations and building of underground and overhead transmission circuits in Burlington and Camden Counties, and other parts of the utility's southern division.

Cuthbert distributes electricity primarily to customers in Cherry Hill and Maple Shade. Portions of the system were built in the 1940s.

"Want to see the new control house?" Maginnis asks. "It's the brains of the whole thing."

The single-story structure's ordinary exterior belies the pristine gleam of the technology within.

Digital information about the state of the substation will be collected by a hardwired network and then disseminated via fiber optic lines to PSE&G's main facilities in Newark and southern regional headquarters in Lawrenceville.

Not everything is high-tech: Batteries in two formidable rows are ready should the station suffer a power failure. "That could happen in an emergency," Maginnis notes.

And for all the improvements in monitoring and other technologies, the substation's basic function will be the same.

It "steps down" the voltage of incoming power and sends it, at 13,000 volts, into the matrix of overhead wires, without which we would be reading by candlelight.

Sost, who lives in Levittown, oversees the logistics of building the new substation while maintaining the old one, portions of which will be demolished.

Safety is a priority, if not an obsession; no work-related injuries have been reported.

"Installation is like an art," Sost says. "It's amazing."

Despite seemingly ceaseless rain, Cuthbert is on schedule.

"When you flick that switch," Maginnis says, "you want that light to come on."