Georgetown unveils $52M operation center in updated electric infrastructure plan

The Georgetown City Council unveiled a $329 million Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for its electric utilities infrastructure at its April 14 meeting to guide development and expansion. One of the most notable CIP-funded projects will build a $52.5 million Electric Utility Operations Center (EUOC). Groundbreaking is scheduled for Fiscal Year 2027. 

The CIP divides its investments across two separate sites: the Electric Plant and the General Plant. Projections over the next five years allocate $261 million to fund capital projects for the Electric Plant, leaving the remaining $67.6 million for the General Plant. 

The EUOC will be a part of the General Plant, covering a 15-acre parcel of land. Georgetown has dedicated $7.8 million in the current year to acquire land for the facility. The remaining $52.5 million will fund design and construction. Additional General Plant investments will include spending $6.6 million to buy, replace and upgrade the electric vehicle fleet and $671,000 to procure capital tools. 

Although the General Plant has the most distinguished project in the CIP, the lion’s share of the funding will go toward the Electric Plant. Accounting for 35% of the full budget, the Electric Plant features a swathe of upcoming projects totaling $114 million. These include: 

• $57.1 million to expand capacity and implement upgrades. 
• $31.1 million to relocate infrastructure for road widenings. 
• $11 million to install substation feeder exists, extensions and LCRA. 
• $6.1 million on sectionalization/coordinating and protection/distribution automation. 
• $4.5 million for voltage conversion and OH to UG conversions. 
• $2.4 million to support redundancy additions. 
• $1.8 million on power quality. 

Outside of specific Electric Plant projects, the CIP dedicates $72.4 million to support customer growth and new development. The city will invest $30.8 million in ordinary replacements, including meters and traffic control measures. Additional plans include spending $23 million to replace 280 poles, $13.3 million for make ready engineering and construction across approximately 240 poles and $7.5 million on operational technology. Technologies included as part of that budget may include upgrades for: 

• Networks 
• Cybersecurity. 
• RF/Fiber. 
• Electric Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). 
• An additional adder for traffic control measures. 

Photo by Novoklimov, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, from Wikimedia Commons