Enhancing Reliability: Building a Smarter Grid for the Future
Reliability is at the core of everything we do at Santee Cooper. We know our customers depend on us to keep the lights on and power flowing every day. That is why we are continuously working to improve and strengthen our electrical grid, ensuring it remains resilient even in the face of challenges like severe weather and other unexpected disruptions.
Preparing for the Unexpected
Mother Nature is unpredictable, and storms, high winds and extreme weather events can cause outages. While we can’t control the weather, we can take proactive steps to minimize its impact. Our crews work year-round to maintain and upgrade power lines, trim trees near electrical infrastructure, and implement power monitoring systems to assist in identifying issues before they become major problems.
On average in 2024, our customers were without power for just 58 minutes, or less than an hour. When excluding major events like hurricanes and outages beyond our control, the average customer outage time drops to just 25.9 minutes.
Investing in a Smarter Grid
A smarter grid means a more reliable grid. We are integrating advanced technologies that enhance our ability to detect outages. Smart meters and real-time monitoring tools allow us to respond faster and provide our customers with up-to-date information about power restoration efforts.
What This Means for You
- Fewer Outages: By identifying and fixing issues before they escalate, we reduce the number of service interruptions.
- Faster Restoration: If an outage does occur, smart technology helps us pinpoint the problem and restore power more efficiently.
- Improved Communication: With real-time updates and enhanced outage tracking, you’ll have better visibility into restoration efforts.
How We Maintain and Improve Reliability
- Annual Circuit Review: We annually review our results of each circuit. The two worst performing circuits in each area (Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Conway, Garden City Beach, Berkeley County; or 10 total) are fully inspected during the following year to look for items that need to be repaired or replaced, limbs, lack of animal guards, etc.
- Breaker Operation Inspections: We perform inspections of circuits that have three breaker operations (blinking lights), where the cause is lightning or unknown, to see if we can identify an issue. When the cause is known, such as an outage caused by a squirrel (which are more common than you think), an inspection isn’t necessary as the cause of the outage is addressed.
- Repeat Outage Evaluations: Locations experiencing two or more outages within a 12-month rolling period undergo evaluations within 30 days of notification.
- Distribution Planning Reviews: Overcurrent protection, including overcurrent device coordination, is reviewed for 1,600 fuses annually (about 15%) to safeguard the distribution system and minimize customer outage time.
- Corrosion Patrols: Circuits near the ocean are inspected for salt-spray contamination to prevent corrosion-related issues.
Our commitment to reliability means investing in solutions today to create a stronger, more dependable grid for tomorrow. No matter what challenges arise, we are dedicated to keeping your power on and your community running.
