Utility companies face many challenges when improving reliability and resiliency for power distribution services. Many systems are decades old. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity. Our nation depends more and more on a constant flow of power. However, despite these challenges, many opportunities make prioritizing modernization and resiliency critical for the T&D industry.
Why Improve Resilience for Power Distribution Services?
Naturally, modernizing and boosting resiliency for the grid comes at a price. Just like any investment, it’s important to consider the pros and cons of updating electric transmission and distribution systems. There are several advantages to investing in resiliency projects.
Today, we depend on electricity for everything from health and safety to defense and communications. From the average residential customer’s point of view, power distribution services help keep their homes comfortable, cook food for their families, and more. Critical facilities, like hospitals, police stations, and others rely on dependable power to provide essential services for health and safety.
In addition, unplanned outages can cost the utility company a lot of money in lost revenue and reactive services to get the system back online. Resiliency projects aim to improve not only how many outages occur, but how quickly you can identify and correct the outage.
Therefore, there are several reasons why it may be time to invest in resiliency and modernization for your assets.
Some Factors to Help Resiliency for Electric Transmission and Distribution
When you think of grid modernization and increasing resiliency, undergrounding might come immediately to mind. This can certainly improve damage prevention in many areas, but can also be quite costly to achieve. Fortunately, there may be other ways to help reduce outages and the time it takes to restore power.
There are generally a few main goals for improving electric system resiliency. These include:
- System hardening against outages
- Quick power recovery during outages
- Providing some power with limited access to normal sources
Even if designing and constructing new T&D assets isn’t an option just yet, there are several other things you can do to help improve resiliency. For instance, improving vegetation management to help reduce the number of outages that occur. Another option is doing regular system audits to identify potential weak areas. Also, having a storm damage assessment team you can call for immediate response is another way you can help reduce downtime for electric utilities. There are many solutions to help improve EU reliability and resiliency.
Design and Construction Oversight Services for Utilities
Our experts at TechServ offer comprehensive technical services for your electric power distribution company. Our team offers innovative solutions for everything from distribution system design to system audits and construction oversight. We are your partner in creating a better T&D system. We are proud to have the skills and resources you need for a successful project. Give us a call at (903) 509-8183 to talk to one of our specialists and discuss how we can help with your EU project.