2000 South Central Ave, Marshfield, WI 54449
Phone: (715) 387-1195
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Marshfield Utilities originated in 1904 when the City of Marshfield purchased the generating facilities from Mr. W. H. Upham. A city ordinance had been passed in 1892 authorizing C.E. Gray, Jr. & Co. to operate and maintain the waterworks. The company was given 60 days to comply with the conditions but when he failed to do so, it was then granted to Mr. Upham. In August 1892, he incorporated and named it the Water Works, Electric Light and Power Company. After the City of Marshfield purchased the utility from Upham, W.D. Connor took the City to Circuit Court declaring the sale null and void because the purchase was done without the vote of the people. Connor won but the City fought back and the case went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declared the purchase valid and the sale was approved.
At the time this utility was purchased, very little electricity was being used and very few homes had appliances, resulting in a low demand for electricity. Most of this was used during the early evening hours when lights constituted the major portion. As the use of electricity grew, the plant itself had to increase in size to keep up with the growth and in 1915, a 500 KW Corliss engine was added to the original plant.
Currently, there are approximately 8,009 water customers and 13,156 electric customers. Marshfield Utilities is continuing to grow to keep pace with local development.
Wildwood Substation feeder & bus relays and RTU (remote terminal unit) were updated to current electronic based technology.
The relays detect faults on the power lines or in substations caused by vegetation, animals, and equipment failure. The relays then operate circuit breakers and other switches in the substation in response to fault situations.
McMillan Substation feeder & bus relays and RTU (remote terminal unit) were updated to current electronic based technology.
The relays detect faults on the power lines or in substations caused by vegetation, animals, and equipment failure. The relays then operate circuit breakers and other switches in the substation in response to fault situations.
Hume Substation feeder relays and RTU (remote terminal unit) were updated to current electronic based technology.
The relays detect faults on the power lines caused by vegetation, animals, and equipment failures. The relays then operate circuit breakers and other switches in the substation in response to fault situations.
Depot Street Tower was constructed in 2015. It is a 500,000 gallon Elevated Reservoir that will serve the Primary Pressure Zone.
In 2014, Well #26 was installed. Well #26 added an additional 340 gallons per minute to the Marshfield Water System.
The 6 inch water main was lined on Adler Road between Lincoln Avenue and State Street. This was the second CIPP lining project within the City of Marshfield.
The battery chargers and battery banks at Hume, McMillan and Wildwood Substations were replaced due to age. The direct current (DC) provides the power to operate the power circuit breakers and relaying equipment.
In 2011 the 6 inch water main was lined on Palmetto Avenue between 19th Street and Wallonie Drive.
This Cured in Place Pipe (CIPP) liner was the inaugural attempt at this type of pipe refurbishment. With this positive project, Marshfield Utilities added another tool to the ways pipes can be repaired to like new conditions. This CIPP lining process allows the pipe to be repaired with minimal street impacts above it.
In 2011 Mannville Tower was constructed. Mannville Tower added an additional 500,000 gallons of storage to the High Pressure Zone of the Marshfield Water System.
The 32% ownership share of the M-33 Combustion Turbine is sold to Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.
The transmission assets (transmission lines, transmission poles, substation relays, Etc.,) including the Mill Creek Substation equipment are sold to American Transmission Company (ATC).
The Stadt Road Natural Gas metering station was constructed to meter the natural gas that Marshfield Utilities uses to power the M-1 Combustion Turbine Plant. The gas is odorized and Marshfield Utilities has the ability to stop the flow of gas with valves at the station.
A natural gas pipeline was installed between the Stadt Road metering and the M-1 Combustion Turbine Plant. The pipeline is about 1 ½ miles long.
The Mill Creek Substation was constructed to support the interconnection of M-1 Combustion Turbine. The substation operates at 115 KV and was constructed to support future expansion. The substation is located on the south side of the City of Marshfield near the City of Marshfield’s Wastewater Treatment Facility.
The M-1 Combustion Turbine (CT) was constructed adjacent to the Mill Creek Substation. The CT consists of two Pratt & Whitney gas generators, (aero derivative engines) and one brush electric generator. The CT max power output is approximately 60 MW. The gas generators can operate on natural gas or fuel oil. The unit first fired on January 31, 2011, first connected to the electrical grid February 4, 2011, and began commercial operation June 6, 2011.
In 2008, Well #25 was installed. Well #25 added 180 gallons per minute of pumping capacity to the Marshfield Water System.
In 2007,Well #24 was installed. Well #24 added a pumping capacity of 250 gallons per minute to the Marshfield Water System.
Upham Booster Station was rebuilt to increase the pumping capacity and a new structure was built around the pumping system.
The B-54 transmission line from McMillan Substation to Stratford is rebuilt due to age and loading constraints. The rebuild consist of larger conductor, new poles, and line hardware.
The Communication Utility was formed. The Communication Utility provides dark fiber service connecting public and privates facilities throughout the City of Marshfield.
In 2003, the Water Department installed a new well - Well #23.
This well replaced two old wells that had become unproductive, and added an additional 290 gallons per minute of pumping capacity to the Marshfield Water System.
In 2002, the South Side Booster Station was reconstructed.
Aerial Fiber Optic Cable is installed along the westerly and southern part and along the downtown area of the City of Marshfield.
Marshfield Utilities purchased and installed the first galvanized steel distribution poles on the Electric System.
In 1996, an unexpected expansion became necessary. Lakehead Pipeline added a significant load south of Marshfield requiring the addition of a 20,000 KW transformer at the Wildwood Substation. This transformer has a distribution voltage of 24,900 volts. This addition marked the first 24,900 volt distribution on the Marshfield system.
In 1994, a new 28,000 KW transformer was installed to replace the 12,500 KW and 14,000 KW units. And in 1995, there was a new 28,000 KW transformer added at the Wildwood Substation.
A new distribution substation bay was constructed to allow for the retirement of the old metal clad switch gear adjacent to the power plant. The remainder of the substation controls that were in the power plant building were also moved to the Wildwood control house at this time.
Because of different substation transformer configurations throughout the Marshfield area, we were unable to transfer load from one station to another without interrupting service to our customers. With the completion of the 1995 Wildwood Substation upgrade, all of the 13,200 volt transformers on the Marshfield system were now of like configuration so that customers could be switched from one transformer to another whenever necessary, without an outage.
This is done periodically for equipment maintenance or construction. This was a milestone in the development of the Marshfield electrical distribution system. This also completed the series of projects started in 1989 with this end goal in mind.
Marshfield Utilities purchased a 32% ownership share of M-33 Combustion Turbine located in West Marinette WI from Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.
In 1992, the Water Department completed construction of an iron removal filtration facility. The facility's nominal capacity is 3.33 million gallons per day.
In the same year, the 500,000 gallon water sphere was unveiled at North Oak and West Doege. In addition, there were two more wells (#21 & #22) installed in the McMillan Wildlife Area.
In 1991, the 6,000 KW, the 12,500 KW and the 16,000 KW generating units at Wildwood Power Plant were retired from service. This marked the end of local coal fired generation for Marshfield. Small scale coal fired generation was no longer economically feasible for the Marshfield community.
Also, in 1991, the Hume Substation was constructed including a 28,000 KW transformer and a new control building to house the related equipment. This substation was fed from the new transmission line going from Wildwood to Arpin. The line is now routed from Wildwood into Hume Substation and back out of Hume to Arpin.
In 1989, a series of changes to upgrade and standardize our substations began. The Wildwood Substation was expanded and a control building was added inside the substation to house the equipment necessary to operate the substation.
At this time, approximately 15 miles of new transmission line was constructed from the Wildwood Substation down to the Arpin Substation. This move provided the second outside feed to the Marshfield area. This greatly improved the reliability of the Marshfield system. A transmission capacitor bank and a 28,000 KW transformer were added to the McMillan Substation and some of the load was transferred off of the existing units.The next year, our supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) was installed.
This system enables us to monitor all of the electric and water facilities and controls the pumping operations of the Water Department. The SCADA system can detect alarm conditions at the various substations, wells, pumping stations and water treatment plant and calls out to the appropriate individual to notify them of a problem.
In 1974, a 37,000 KW transformer was added to the Wildwood Substation and a transmission line tie was constructed between Wildwood and McMillan Substation.
This was the first tie between Marshfield's generation units and the transmission system. At this time, the 4,000 KW generating unit and the 6,000 KW generating unit were converted to be able to operate on gas or oil instead of coal. In 1978, a 14,000 KW transformer was added to the McMillan Substation and in 1981, the 2,500 KW generating unit at Wildwood was sold. In 1987, the 4,000 KW generating unit was retired from service.
By 1965, normal consumption was at 93 million KW hours and the customer base was at 6,292.
Another year to note in our history was 1966 when the utility moved their office, warehouse and garage location to 2000 South Central Avenue. Hume Ave. Two more wells (#19 & #20) were installed in 1968/69 and a three million gallon reservoir was constructed at the Hume Ave. Pumping Station.
A rather slow growth of the utility was noted until approximately 1944 when an upward trend started and a 4,000 KW turbine was added.
Consumption increased to over eight million KW hours and the utility was serving 3,327 customers. The growth increase continued and in 1950, it was necessary to add the 6,000 KW turbine giving the plant installed capacity of 14,000 kilowatts. In 1956, a 12,000 KW transformer was added at the McMillan Substation and the first transmission line tie to Marshfield was added.
This tie went from this new transformer at McMillan Substation up to Stratford where it tied into a line owned by Wisconsin Public Service. Also, the first step-up transformer was added at Wildwood Substation which stepped our voltage from 4,160 volts to 13,200 volts. These projects brought on the first use of 13,200 volts as a distribution voltage in Marshfield.
The first Water and Light Commission was formed in 1934. There were five commissioners representing the utility. Today, there is still a Commission that governs the utility.
In 1922, the first steam turbine was installed at the plant and two of the smaller units that had been in the original plant were removed from service.
In 1926 with the load growing, it was necessary to add a 1,500 KW steam turbine and the last remaining Corliss engine was taken out of service. This was followed in 1935 by the addition of a 2,500 KW steam turbine. The waterworks was also busy during this period. The first well was struck on October 5, 1923 and by the end of 1932, there was a total of six drilled wells.