Key Highlights
- Duke Energy is enhancing its grid resilience to prevent outages in Ohio and Kentucky.
- The company has invested significantly over the past decade to improve grid reliability through technological advancements.
- New technology allows for faster outage restoration, isolation of issues, and self-healing capabilities during storms.
- Duke Energy reported that self-healing technology has helped maintain power for nearly 400,000 customers in Ohio and Kentucky this year.
Enhancing Grid Resilience Amid Winter Conditions
The winter of 2023-2024 has been anything but mild, with severe cold spells testing the resilience of power grids across multiple regions. In response to these challenges, Duke Energy is taking a proactive approach by investing in new technology to prevent outages and improve recovery times.
Investment in Technological Advancements
“Over the last 10 years, we spent a significant amount of money building out our system to improve grid reliability,” said Joshua McCord, director of operations for Duke Energy’s distribution control centers for the Midwest. “That includes putting communications on the system.” This investment has paid off as technological advancements are now enabling faster outage restoration, strengthening the grid during storms, and increasing overall reliability.
Faster Outage Restoration
Traditionally, when a power line went down, crews had to patrol entire sections of lines. Now, with advanced technology, the team can isolate issues more precisely. “In years past, you had to send a crew out and they had to patrol an entire section of line. Now, with this technology, we’re able to isolate it down to a much smaller section of line and say, ‘ok, we know the problem is between these two pieces of equipment,’” McCord explained.
Self-Healing Technology
A key feature of Duke Energy’s new system is “self-healing technology,” which allows for rerouting power when issues are experienced on the grid. According to McCord, this technology has been instrumental in maintaining power for nearly 400,000 customers in Ohio and Kentucky. He added that if Hurricane Ike’s remnants from 2008 were handled with today’s technology, “self-healing technology would have made a significant difference in the restoration time.” During those storms, some areas stayed in the dark for more than a week.
Control Center Preparedness
The tour of Duke Energy’s power distribution control center revealed that it is packed and ready to handle any extreme weather. “We just had this cold spell come through, and the operators are in here making sure that the load on the system is balanced,” said McCord. “They move things around to open switches and close switches to make sure that the system can handle the demands our customers are putting on the grid at the time.”
McCord’s emphasis on the control center’s readiness underscores Duke Energy’s commitment to ensuring minimal disruption for its customers during winter storms. As we step further into the season, it is clear that investments in technology and infrastructure are paying dividends.
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