Princeton electric department talks 2024 goals, 2023 accomplishments

The Princeton Electric Department hopes to finish construction of a storage building in 2024.

The department demolished the old water plant in March and started construction on the replacement storage/welding shop, said Jeff Mangrich, superintendent of the Electric Department.

In preparation of the new Ollie’s warehouse north of the interstate, the electric department removed 1,800 feet of overhead lines with 1,400 feet of underground wiring. The electric department installed permanent electric service to Ollie’s, Mangrich said.

Additionally in 2023, Mangrich said the city experienced 71 power outages. Of those outages, 53 were caused by squirrels, three by bird, five by trees, four equipment failures, three by storms and three by unknown causes. The average outage time was 37 minutes.

The city had to generate 100% of its power for about 104.5 hours after the April 4 tornado. The storm resulted in 32 broken Ameren transmission poles on the radial feed to Princeton.

“Most people probably didn’t know that was happening,” Mangrich said.

The electric department’s goal is to continue converting overhead lines to underground and extend a feeder along Sixth Street for redundancy north of the interstate.

A large project will be replacing engine No. 8 with its power generation. The city already has spent about $750,000 to $800,000 on the project that will be about $2 million total to replace.