In the late 1990s, a major North American utility decided to carry out a review of distribution and substation design and planning to identify areas where capital costs could be reduced while ensuring the reliability of the power source. The review revealed that 20% of the distribution budget was tied up in substation construction. An off-the-cuff remark about designing a padmount transformer that could handle up to 138 kV and was suitable for serving power needs of up to 10 MVA, sparked the interest of Partner Technologies Inc. (www.partnertechnologies.net). Its main purpose was to create a high-voltage padmount transformer (HVPT) to cut costs while maintaining reliability for the utility.

A single HVPT installation could provide cost savings up to 50% over conventional designs due to reduced property costs, reduced transformer costs and the elimination of foundations and fencing. To date, there are 20 HVPT installations in service with 16 additional planned by 2012.

The first utility installation came about when an industrial customer needed to double plant capacity. Instead of spending millions on traditional infrastructure, the utility went with the HVPT to supply the additional power, which saved money for the utility and took up less of the customer's property area.

The second utility installation of the HVPT was to feed a new electrically heated school in Northern Canada. The installation of the HVPT now provides heat for the school and for the surrounding community. Two new customer-owned HVPT installations serve a pollution control center to provide power to a growing industrial customer and a recently commissioned water treatment plant.