Consumers Energy is installing more smart technology than ever before

Investor-owned utility Consumers Energy will invest nearly $24 million in smart technology this year to prevent power outages and keep the lights on for customers.

Nearly 3,000 line sensors – the most that Consumers Energy has ever installed in a year – and over 100 automatic transfer reclosers (ATRs) are being deployed throughout Michigan, US.

“Consumers Energy has made a commitment with our Reliability Roadmap to ultimately restore power in 24 hours or less. New technology like this is an important tool as we make the grid more reliable for all our customers,” said Chris Laird, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations. “We’re excited and know these devices will continue keeping us on track to serve close to 2 million Michigan homes and businesses more reliably every hour of every day.”

ATRs isolate outages by detecting power loss and automatically re-routing power in another direction. Line sensors predict problems on the grid and alert crews in real time with exact locations, preventing outages before they happen. 

Consumers Energy estimates ATRs have helped to prevent hundreds of thousands of outages over the past few years. In 2023 alone, ATRs prevented outages for nearly 70,000 customers by isolating outages to the smallest area possible.

Have you read?
Michigan utilities file grid modernisation plans
Preparing the power grid for future quantum cyberattacks

“ATRs and line sensors are both instrumental when storms strike and cause outages,” said Greg Salisbury, vice president of electric engineering “They will be a big part of our reliability future and keeping the power on for our customers.” 

Smart technology is a key component of the Reliability Roadmap, Consumers Energy’s plan for a smarter and stronger electric grid. The plan also includes investments in forestry work and infrastructure upgrades, with tactics like installing iron poles to withstand Michigan’s severe weather and burying overhead powerlines.

Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.8 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

Originally published by Sean Wolfe on power-grid.com