Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/525030
108 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2015 SPONSORED REPORT W hen ESPN began making sig- nificant upgrades to its 150- acre campus in Bristol, Conn., it turned to Eversource for the kind of electric system upgrade that would power the media mega-giant's growth for decades into the future. It isn't very often that Eversource builds a new, 20-megawatt substation and two new high-voltage electrical circuits, but that's what it took to sup- port a company that pushes bound- aries across every media platform, 24/7/365 days a year. To support 18 buildings and a new state-of-the art, energy efficient, digi- tal studio for ESPN's flagship sports program "SportsCenter," ESPN needed to increase the capacity to the power supply it receives from Eversource. A collaborative team of engineer- ing and construction employees from Eversource designed a multi-million dollar project that required signifi- cant coordination and communica- tion with ESPN, one of Eversource's largest customers. Completed safely and 20 per- cent under budget, the project faced daunting challenges to become operational within a year. To meet the challenge, Everource used alternative testing locations, creative bench-test- ing methods and equipment mock-ups to complete testing of protective and communications equipment that typi- cally would have been performed at the job site. This advance equipment testing at off-site locations allowed other se- quenced work to continue on the con- struction site, resulting in the project being safely completed in a shorter period of time than anticipated. "When the distribution equipment supplying power to ESPN was about to reach its maximum capacity, we asked Eversource to furnish [infrastructure] capable of serving a projected load of 20 MW over the next 10 to 15 years. The collaboration between ESPN's engineering staff, our medium-voltage consultant, and the various Eversource departments was very professional. The project outcome was highly successful and will serve ESPN for many years to come." — John Cistulli, Senior Director, Global Construction & Facilities Engineering, ESPN CASE STUDY: Powering ESPN's Growth into the Future