A landmark year of OPD5 infrastructure buildout
This article was originally published in our January 2026 Watts Up E-newsletter. To read the full newsletter click here.
Over the past year, OPD5 has been in the midst of a veritable capital infrastructure boom. With multiple major projects in process during 2025, most expected to reach completion within the next few months, the district will be able to offer ever more reliable service, and be well poised to face expected growth.
Perhaps top on the list of these projects is the new 138 kilovolt (kV) transmission line that has been under construction on the 25 mile stretch across the Mormon Mesa. This line, which will deliver power from the district’s main hub at Tortoise Substation in Moapa to the Gila Substation at Riverside, will bring full redundancy to the Virgin Valley communities; as well as the capability to backfeed power to the Moapa Valley as a further redundancy measure.
Another set of vital infrastructure projects has been taking shape on the western end of Mesquite. The new Long Drive Switchyard, near the Mesquite Sports and Events Complex; and the new Raptor Substation at Pioneer Blvd and Lower Flat Top Drive; are both nearing completion.
The new switchyard will provide multiple feeders off of a major transmission line entering the valley in that area. It is designed to distribute power load evenly to three different substations that supply electricity to a huge swath of the community.
A transmission line was also completed in 2025, leading from the switchyard directly to the new Raptor Substation. This substation will service the current and future load of the Commercial and Industrial park in western Mesquite.
The OPD5 Engineering Department has been busy over the past year overseeing construction on all of these projects, and clearing away the final logistical hurdles as they have moved forward.
“These projects which should be completed in the next few months, have been complex, multi-year projects,” said OPD5 Engineering Manager Randall Ozaki.”We have taken them from their very conception, through engineering, material procurement and getting contractors on board to get them done. It has been a significant effort and everyone in our department has done their part, and a little more, in moving them forward. It has been a team effort with everyone involved.”
Some of the most important work to enhance system reliability has been done in OPD5 substations during 2025. The past year has brought a series of upgrades, updates and new construction at existing substations that promise to keep the local electric grid in step with growth; both for now and well into the future.
OPD5 crews kept busy last year upgrading and reconfiguring a cluster of substations in central Mesquite to increase overall capacity in the area. They have done some extensive work at the Arrowhead Substation to prepare for new transformers being brought in to that station. In coordination with this, crews made additional upgrades at the Painted Hills and Falcon Ridge Substations in order to more efficiently spread the power load among this key infrastructure.
“When we get this all in, we will have effectively doubled the capacity to serve that central part of town,” said OPD5 Substation Manager Keven Hansen. “Those kinds of efforts tend to be ongoing, though. So there will be more to come as needed.”
Meanwhile, across the mesa at Tortoise Substation in Moapa, crews have been working on continued upgrades to a 230kV ring bus. A complex configuration of circuit breakers connected in a closed loop, the ring bus enables substation operators greater flexibility to isolate faulty circuits if needed, without interrupting power to other circuits in the ring.
“In short, it provides greater reliability,” Hansen said. “It provides a kind of automatic self-healing design that can be employed in case of a problem.”
The expanded ring bus will add two terminals which will allow OPD5 to serve more load out of Tortoise with greater flexibility. “To some extent, this project is to prepare for future growth in the area,” Hansen said.
All of these infrastructure enhancements have been ongoing throughout 2025. Most are expected to be completed and put into service during the first quarter of 2026.