James January-February 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 69
been relocated underground where it is financially feasible, effective, and makes the most impact. These changes
not only improve daily reliability, but also make the grid
more resilient to extreme weather events like Hurricane
Helene. When events do occur, our system is increasingly
benefiting from self-healing technology. Today, more than
60 percent of Georgia Power’s distribution grid is self-healing, meaning it can automatically detect and isolate faults,
minimizing outages and speeding up restoration times.
The results are evident. In 2023, Georgia Power
achieved some of our best reliability metrics in our nearly century-and-a-half history. Customers experienced 15
percent fewer outages compared to the previous year, and
when outages did occur, restoration times were 27 minutes faster on average.
For Georgia, the impact of grid resiliency goes beyond
any single storm. A reliable power grid serves as the bedrock for economic and community growth. When businesses know they can count on reliable power, they are
more likely to invest, expand and hire. Conversely, every
hour of lost electricity costs Georgia’s businesses thousands of dollars in spoiled product or lost productivity. For
families, reliable power means safety, comfort and stability, while outages can mean as little as an uncomfortable
summer afternoon or as much as the loss of critical home
medical equipment.
We know it is our responsibility to deliver clean, safe,
reliable and affordable energy for our customers and our
goal is to balance the investments we must make in the
state’s energy grid with our commitment to maintain
affordable energy for customers. Our long-term planning
process with the PSC, centered around the longstanding
Integrated Resource Plan, helps ensure we’re making
smart investments and that every dollar invested in grid
modernization has a return that is multiplied in avoided
costs, economic stability and growth, and higher customer satisfaction.
GRID TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS
Our experience during Hurricane Helene underscores
why these investments matter. Smart grid technology
allowed us to isolate outages quickly, remotely reroute
power to unaffected areas, and restore service in record time. In areas of the state that did not experience
the wholesale destruction of the worst-hit regions, our
self-healing systems acted automatically, diagnosing and
resolving certain issues before our teams were even able
to deploy into the field.
The thousands of customers who avoided hours of
sustained outages during Helene are not just statistics for
us. They represent families who could keep their refrigerators cold, businesses that could remain open to serving
their neighbors, and communities that could recover faster
or lend aid. Moreover, this represents crews who were able
to focus on the hardest hit areas more quickly and who
were able to concentrate fully on the work of rebuilding.
To be clear, no amount of smart technology can keep
the power on when hurricane-force winds bring down
more than a thousand miles of power lines. Again, these
investments allow line crews to immediately concentrate
on rebuilding the crucial pieces of infrastructure that will
get the lights back on for the most customers in the shortest amount of time.
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