Remember the lawsuit between Capital Electric and MDU over who gets that juicy new neighborhood going up on 43rd Avenue? There are a lot of reasons why this area is so hotly contested…and they’re dollars.

This isn’t exactly a new battle. When businesses such as Space Aliens were first built north of Century Avenue, this fight was already started. As I recall, MDU won. After all, they claim, they are supposed to be the ones serving the city. As the city grows, well, that’s where the problems start. Capital Electric doesn’t want to retreat as the city limits advance and claims it should serve this area. Judging by the news reports, they’re ready to fight for it.

This substation north of 1804 might have something to do with it. These things don’t go up cheaply, and it would be nice if Capital Electric could recoup some of those costs by serving a lot of homes in the immediate area.

They already had a substation in this area, but I guess the old one would be too small if it were asked to handle such a load. But we’ll never know, will we? So far MDU has come up the winner when contesting service areas in North Bismarck.