The Hartford-based company is installing 200 “smart switches” on its electric grid that will allow power to be restored from outages with computer-assisted technology from the company’s operations center. The problems with the grid can be fixed without having to deploy a crew to inspect and make repairs.
Installing the smart switches requires an investment of nearly $13 million. But company officials said this week that use of the smart switches should reduce the number of outages by 30 to 50 percent.
“Our continued investments in the electric grid, including self-healing technology like smart switches, are helping keep the power flowing for our customers,” Ken Bowes, vice president of engineering for Eversource’s Connecticut operations, said in a statement. “This automated equipment requires no human action, which allows us to restore an outage much more quickly — oftentimes within one minute.”
The automatic switching devices identify the location of power outages as they occur, isolate problem areas on the system, and re-route power to customers. Over the past two years, Eversource has installed approximately 50 of these automated smart switches in communities around the state. There will be 60 more of the devices added to the electric system by the end of this year and nearly 90 more will be installed in 2017. The switches are being installed in areas that have experienced more frequent outages in the last several years.
Joel Gordes, a West Hartford-based energy consultant, said that while reducing outages is a laudable goal for the utility, Eversource must maintain a delicate balance between the usage of smart grid technology and that which requires more human interaction.
“The problem with adding more automation to the grid is that it makes it a lot more vulnerable to being hacked,” Gordes said. “It makes the system that much more complex to operate.”
Eversource has about 1.2 million customers in 149 Connecticut communities.
©2016 the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
