New Dominion Energy technology helps lessen power outages

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) –The spring season brings with it a lot of rain and powerful storms can cause power outages as Dominion Energy knows all too well.

“Imagine if you’re a customer, right? And you lose power. It’s a huge inconvenience,” explains Cherise Newsome, a Dominion Energy spokeswoman.

“You can’t cook, you can’t really go in and out of your fridge like you want to. So we’re really sensitive and mindful of the fact that power outages are a huge deal and a big inconvenience. So our goal is to try to prevent and reduce outages as much as possible.”

Newsome said that’s why they’re implementing new technology to not just get power back on quicker, but also keep it from happening in the first place. It’s part of a $50 billion dollar project that works to harden the power grid. Some of that money went towards special sensors on power lines that let them know when power stops flowing.

“We install these smart sensors on power lines that help detect faults on those lines,” Newsome explained. “Our operations center will then analyze that information and can relay that to our line. Workers and crews are boots on the ground who are then going to go to their site to help, assess and inspect what’s going on.”

Using the information, teams can even reroute power using a new looping Modern Distribution Management System to get you your power back in minutes where the updates are installed.

“For example, there could be 2500 customers in that neighborhood, but they’re all connected. So our crews can reroute that flow of power. There will still be a segment of customers who are without a power, because we have to make those manual repairs.”

That small segment may be about 400 customers impacted directly by a line needing manual repairs. Linemen are already in their trucks ready to get to that location and make the repairs needed. If it’s a tree branch that fell on the line, the Dominion team still asked that you leave that to the professionals for safety purposes.

“We ask you to stay away from it and to call the professionals, because tree limbs that are entangled with the power lines could still be very dangerous and energized,” she cautioned.

There new technology in place helps the team know power is out, but calling or reporting the outage online still gives them vital information to better help respond to the outage and get power back on.

You can contact Dominion by dialing 1-866-DOM-HELP or you can download the Dominion Energy app.

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