Of the billions of dollars in infrastructure work now under way at Los Angeles International Airport, it’s one of the most overlooked projects. Yet if it were not built, one of the busiest airports in the nation could suddenly come to a screeching halt.
The project is a $158 million electrical receiving station now under construction on the northwest corner of the LAX airfield. The purpose of the new station — a joint venture between Los Angeles World Airports and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power — is to place LAX on its own micro-power grid and increase that grid’s reliability.
Receiving Station X — the first new receiving station in the LADWP’s network in 33 years — is intended to relieve this power disruptions and other limitations of the old system. It will have several times the capacity of the current station and be a facility solely dedicated to LAX. According to information supplied by Los Angeles World Airports, power will be supplied directly from LADWP’s 230kV transmission network with underground connections, thereby increasing reliability.
Groundbreaking took place in December 2020, with Clark Construction Group of Bethesda, Md. holding the main construction contract of $43 million.
The project’s completion date has been pushed back to fourth quarter 2024.
