• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Historic Deal Reopens B.C. Indigenous Territory to Fracking, Promises Land Restoration March 19, 2023
Repsol Abandons Plan to Ship Canadian LNG to Europe March 17, 2023
Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska March 14, 2023
U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse March 14, 2023
Next
Prev

U.S. Utilities Invest in Technology, Build Customer Trust to Cope with Future Storms, Wildfires

June 11, 2019
Reading time: 2 minutes

Pixabay/Pexels

Pixabay/Pexels

1
SHARES
 

Facing the rising threat of wildfires in the west and devastating storms throughout the country, American utilities say they’re improving their storm response strategies, “hardening” and digitizing grids, and building proactive relationships with customers who don’t want to be left in the dark.

Utility Dive cites Florida Power & Light (FPL) as an example of a power company that has acted definitively on the hard lessons delivered by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Whereas it took more than two weeks for FPL to restore power to 95% of its customers in the wake of Wilma, the utility needed less than half that time to restore power to the same degree after the state was battered by Hurricane Irma in 2017.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

Critical to that rapid response was FPL’s decision to “pre-stag[e] thousands of utility workers throughout the state,” well ahead of Irma’s making landfall, and to muster a restoration crew of 28,000 at its height.

Also important were the billions FPL spent post-Wilma to both physically “harden” the power system (for example, by installing concrete power poles) and digitize the grid to more swiftly locate and repair outages.

A key player in FPL’s much accelerated response to Hurricane Irma was a technology and services company called Itron, which helps the utility “to manage almost 4,000 automated feeder switches and 20,000 line sensors” that ultimately led to faster restoration rates, Utility Dive states. The company’s services included pole sensors designed to measure factors like tilt and shock, enabling the utility to remotely locate damage, isolate the issue, and determine a precision response. Though the sensors are still in the pilot stage, they’re seen as a big gain for utilities who must otherwise have to “drive the lines” after a storm, hunting for the source of an outage.

The Jacksonville Energy Authority (JEA), meanwhile, has added a program that helps individual communities fund underground power line systems, alongside serious investment in sensor and control technology similar to FPL’s. JEA is also investing in the emergency communication systems it will need to reach out to inform and reassure customers in the midst of a power outage.

“Customers understand a storm came through,” said Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness at the Edison Electric Institute. “What they don’t like is being left in the dark—both literally and figuratively.”

Aaronson added that utilities increasingly understand the value of communicating with their customers “on blue sky days”. The advance relationship-building lays the foundation for power companies to be seen as “a source of safety information, and a trusted voice,” he said.

Utility Dive says that sense of trust will be critical for California utilities that will be “tasked with informing customers about wildfire dangers—and the potential for proactive power shutoffs to reduce the risk.”



in Clean Electricity Grid, Drought, Famine & Wildfires, Severe Storms & Flooding, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter
International Agencies & Studies

BREAKING: Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 20, 2023
244
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr
Oil & Gas

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
106
Wikimedia Commons/Humans of Vanuatu
Ending Emissions

Six Countries Call for Fossil-Free Pacific

March 19, 2023
19

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

BREAKING: Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 20, 2023
244
@davenewworld_2

Keystone Pipeline Safety Worries Lawmakers after TC Energy Ordered to Reduce Operating Pressure

March 19, 2023
122
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
106
EcoFlight

Historic Deal Reopens B.C. Indigenous Territory to Fracking, Promises Land Restoration

March 19, 2023
358
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
545
Rebecca Bollwitt/flickr

Fossils Stay ‘Oily’, Gibsons Sues Big Oil, U.S. Clean Energy Booms, EU Pushes Fossil Phaseout, and Fukushima Disaster was ‘No Accident’

March 14, 2023
257

Recent Posts

Wikimedia Commons/Humans of Vanuatu

Six Countries Call for Fossil-Free Pacific

March 19, 2023
19
Wikipedia

Fossil Funding Makes Indigenous Resource Network a ‘Propaganda Machine’, Opponent Says

March 19, 2023
26
moerschy / Pixabay

Planetary Weight Study Shows Humans Taking Most of Earth’s Resources

March 19, 2023
12
Environmental Defence Canada/flickr

Repsol Abandons Plan to Ship Canadian LNG to Europe

March 18, 2023
284
U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
142
EcoAnalytics

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
152
Next Post
anita_starzycka/Pixabay

String of Cancellations Could Spell the End of New Gas Plants in California

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}