Significant technology investments, including a state-of-the-art operations center and advanced operating system, have paved the way for DTE’s transition to a smart grid – one that focuses on automation to isolate outages and provide our field crews with specific damage locations so they can make repairs faster.
Currently for many customers, damage to one area of the circuit providing their power will result in an outage for the entire circuit. With automation, our system operations center may be able to remotely isolate the damaged area and reroute power for customers on the remainder of the circuit while our crews make repairs. That means that more customers’ lights stay on while we’re at work fixing damage to our equipment.
Automation also pinpoints the damage area for our field crews, eliminating the need for crews to physically examine lines and poles to identify where work needs to be done – speeding up repairs and reducing outage time.
This drive to automation is part of DTE’s four-point plan to improve reliability for customers. The other three pillars of the plan are: trimming trees, updating existing infrastructure and rebuilding significant portions of the grid.
Our entire grid is expected to be fully automated in the next five years. It’s part of our $9 billion plan to build a world-class grid for our customers.
It makes our energy use more efficient and helps ensure that our customers have the power they need and the reliability they deserve.
