Georgia Power completes Smart Grid improvement project

Georgia Power smart grid upgrades boost reliability with self-healing networks, DOE funding, and ARRA-backed automation, cutting outages, improving SAIFI and SAIDI, speeding restoration, reducing truck rolls, deferring generation, and lowering carbon emissions.

Georgia Power customers are starting 2014 with increased reliability due to the recent completion of a statewide smart grid improvement project conducted through a multiyear Smart Grid Investment Grant SGIG awarded by the Department of Energy DOE.

The $109 million project, which includes $52.5 million in funds from the DOE and $56.5 million from the company, is part of a larger $165 million agreement between Southern Company and the DOE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for improvements throughout the company's four-state service territory.

Through the project, Georgia Power has been able to create 73 self-healing networks made up of 174 feeders. Self-healing networks that can automatically isolate problems and restore power to unaffected areas have helped decrease service disruptions.

Overall, the improvements have had a direct impact on customer reliability with smart grid benefits including faster recognition of outages and outage locations, improved restoration times when service is interrupted, increased efficiency of the grid and optimized grid operations.

Additionally, two key reliability measures, System Average Interruption Frequency Index SAIFI and System Average Interruption Duration Index SAIDI, have improved approximately 35.7 percent and 37 percent, respectively, as part of a Smart Grid initiative for upgraded circuits through September 2013.

"These enhancements to our grid and processes are allowing us to work smarter across our system and better serve all of our customers throughout the state," said Leslie Sibert, vice president of distribution for Georgia Power. "Although our customers are already seeing a positive impact on reliability and service, this federal smart grid grant project will continue to provide economic and environmental benefits for the growing state of Georgia for years to come."

The project has helped Georgia Power defer the need for an additional 200 megawatts of generation and avoid 61,000 truck trips for service calls, as smart meter pilots have shown, totaling more than 635,000 saved miles, through September 2013. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by more than 4,000 tons, including generation reduction, and nearly $3.5 million in costs for the company have been avoided.

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