Pangborn Development Site VI
Work continues building out the Giga Watt facilities at Pangborn
JUNE 1
Today we entered the testing phase of our site. SigmaSix was testing all breakers, transformers, and connections from the substation switchgear to each pod. The electricians were also on-site repairing all of the troubled areas that were discovered during testing, and preparing for our L&I inspection that should be happening next week.
PSE will be at Pangborn doing the UL field certification on all of the equipment deployed in the pods starting next week. All equipment including assembly of all the miners, PSU, fans, and control panels will need to be certified. At the request of the PUD we are halting assembly of the substation. This is for the event that when they take control they would like to make any changes for operating and maintaining it.
This does not however halt the progress of the mobile substation. This was approved by the PUD and we are working with Snohomish PUD on their unit that we have been looking to move to Pangborn. The Douglas County PUD has requested that they install low side breakers to the unit. Regarding the operation of the permanent substation the PUD has agreed to supervise a company or operator that is comfortable doing so. We will work with them as well as our engineering company, CTC, to select a suitable candidate for this. The remaining pieces of the H-Frame will be brought in by the PUD next week and installed. These pieces are on the lower side bringing the lines to the metering cabinet.
MAY 25
The status of crypto mining in one of our two counties was questioned on Tuesday in a emergency meeting by Grant County after an illegal mining farm burnt down a building. This prompted us and other companies to attend and defend our position. We were represented very well and were one of the only companies compliant with the officials’ request. We are working with them on educating about the necessary requirements, and on explaining the safeguards that we at Giga Watt have in place so that this does not happen at our facilities.
Thursday we met with officials from the Douglas County Port, PUD, and state L&I. This meeting was to determine who would run and operate both the mobile and permanent substations. The first option would be for L&I to create an entirely new set of policies for a private company to manage and maintain a substation at the voltage that we are building, this would increase our power on date until they figure out those policies. Our second option is for the PUD to manage and maintain both the mobile and permanent substation and we would sign over all ownership. To make this option work we will need to present this request to the Douglas County commissioners this coming Tuesday. If this option does not get passed our third and possibly quickest option is to sign the substation back over to the Douglas County Port and have both the Port and the PUD work out a deal on how it will be run. Because they are government agencies this and the second option would be the quickest as they are not held to the same standards that Giga Watt is held to by L&I.
Thursday and Friday we also completed the ground grid and today we had the steel workers and the cranes in place to complete the H-Frame. We are now ready to begin bringing in the transformers, meters and the circuits for installation, these belong to the PUD except for our permanent transformer. The PUD has praised our speed and efficiency in the project, they expected this to take two years to complete and we are a year ahead of their timeline. These officials did not imagine we would be at this point and they did not prepare for the standards and regulations to put upon a private company managing their own substation. This is why we are continually meeting with the PUD, Port, and L&I.
MAY 23
With the help of Greenleaf we have got all of the trenches dug and Nepel Electric has laid the conduit to both the PUD’s side and our side for the transformers. The ground grid should begin to be laid tomorrow, then resistance will be measured and once that is checked off, the backfilling of special gravel chips will be laid. L&I has rescheduled our meeting for Thursday 5/24 at the Giga Watt facilities and both the PUD and the Port will be in attendances so that all agencies can sign off on final approvals as to who will manage the substation. Our crews that are to complete the H-Frame are scheduled for Friday this week. Power is turned off and they can get in to the site with equipment, lifts, cranes and steel workers.
