Major electric power projects in OC

At opposite sides of Oconee County, the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative is involved in major projects which Blue Ridge General Manager Charles Dalton says will mean good news for the consumer members of the multi-county cooperative. A new Salem substation will replace one built in the early 1970s. On the opposite southern side of the county, easements have been obtained for several miles of transmission line that will start in northwestern Anderson County and finish at a new substation in Oconee’s southwest corner. Blue Ridge’s Terry Ballenger says, at one point, the new electric transmission line will skirt Oconee County’s Golden Corner Commerce Park on highway 59. “That will be accomplished by Central Electric Power Cooperative out of Columbia. That’s our wholesale power supplier here at Blue Ridge and it’s also the supplier for the other 19 electric distribution cooperatives in the state,” Ballenger said in an interview with 96.3/WGOG NEWS.