Advanced Communications – Our network of advanced meters will allow us to provide our customers with detailed usage information in the future. To ensure that our advanced metering deployment is successful, we check installed meters to make sure they’re working properly. Alabama Power employee Kirk Smith (pictured bottom right) is one of many metering employees checking smart meters around our system. Intelligent devices we’ve installed on our grid send vast amounts of data around the clock to our system control centers, providing valuable information that operators use to quickly make decisions and avert problems. Jerry West (pictured left) is a supervisor in our Georgia Power Transmission Control Center.
SMART GRID
What’s SMART about Southern Company?
We’re ensuring a smarter, more robust grid by investing in technology
to optimize our performance, reliability, and security.
Southern Company has invested billions of dollars to build and maintain a smarter, more robust transmission and distribution system. Long before the term “smart grid” evolved, we were using smart grid technologies to remotely monitor the grid, gather data regarding grid conditions, and isolate problems on the grid, enabling faster restoration of power. Over the next few years, we plan to invest billions more to expand and maintain our grid and to ensure that it continues to become even smarter and more robust through the application of intelligent electronic devices. The stimulus funds we expect to receive for smart grid investments will enable us to accelerate our deployment of these technologies. A smart grid provides fast, two-way communication, enhancing our ability to monitor and control our entire electric infrastructure in real time and respond quickly to existing and potential problems. Smart grid technologies referred to as “self-healing” can automatically isolate potential problems and restore power to unaffected areas. Our substations are getting smarter as well, with enhanced monitoring, protection, and control devices. We’re also installing advanced metering, or smart meters, throughout our service territory. This smart meter infrastructure will serve as the last link of a communications connection with our customers. The benefits of a smarter grid are numerous for Southern Company and for our customers. A smarter grid helps us better manage demand, lower operating costs, and improve reliability and efficiency. It will also better integrate intermittent renewable energy and energy storage options into the system. As for our customers, they will have more control over their energy usage and more smart choices for efficiencies in their own homes or businesses.
