When the rare October ice storm hit last year, power pole after power pole used by Cimarron Electric Cooperative snapped east of Okarche, leaving hundreds of people in the dark during freezing weather.
Even before the ice storm, the area served by Cimarron Electric from north of Edmond in southern Logan County, through Cashion and west around Piedmont and Okarche and spanning across western Canadian County, had been one of the fastest-growing areas in the state. The number of people who lost power would likely have been less with another sub-station in the area, electric company spokesmen said.
And a new one is now almost completed at Sara Road and Waterloo/Azalea roads in southeast Kingfisher County.
Cimarron Chief Operating Officer Jeff Hyatt said population growth is driving up the demand for power. The new sub-station should be completed before any chance of another October ice storm.
Hyatt, 55, has worked at Cimarron Electric for 32 years. He graduated from Oklahoma Christian University in 1989 and Kingfisher High School in 1984. Hyatt handles the Kingfisher-based electric company’s public relations. He said school districts where populations are exploding are Piedmont, Yukon, Deer Creek and in housing additions along Northwest Expressway, south of Okarche and west of Surrey Hills. New housing additions are being built each year.
Reed Emerson, Cimarron Senior Vice President of Operations and Engineering, said the new sub-station is being built by Western Farmers Electric Cooperative of Anadarko. The cost of it is $5 million. Sub-stations are needed to distribute power to homes and businesses as population increases and development spreads. The sub-station will serve four counties, Oklahoma, Logan, Kingfisher and Canadian. Cimarron Electric buys power from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, Emerson explained.
“The sub-station should be energized with completion in the next three months. We set it here (Sara and Waterloo) because of the growth that is coming from Piedmont and Oklahoma City,” Emerson said.
The new sub-station work started three months ago and should be finished by November, he said.
It will also support a sub-station at Concho between Okarche and El Reno, so there is more support in the event of storms.
There is a sub-station at Cashion on State Highway 74 and at Reeding Road west of Cashion.
The sub-stations serve those Cimarron customers who live along and west of Cimarron Road in Canadian County and in Kingfisher County around Okarche and Piedmont with some customers in City of Piedmont limits.
Cimarron has about 18,000 customers in nine counties of central and west central and northwest Oklahoma.
“We did have a lot of damage to the south here from the October ice storm,” Emerson said. “We’re in the process now of building a 4-mile line from north Piedmont to Northwest Expressway, State Highway 3, that is “rapidly developing,” Emerson said.
