Vermont’s Green Mountain Power launches Zero Outages Initiative
Green Mountain Power (GMP) in Vermont launched a new effort called the Zero Outages Initiative.
Here’s how it works: the Zero Outages Initiative leverages circuit-level resiliency data, combined with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) community vulnerability data, topography, and other metrics to determine the right resiliency approaches for each of GMP’s 300 circuits. This ensures that all customers experience zero outages, whether in a remote area, or in a densely developed downtown.
“We all see the severe impacts from storms, we know the impact outages have on your lives, and the status quo is no longer enough,” Mari McClure, GMP president and CEO, said. “We are motivated to do all we can to combat climate change and create a Vermont that is sustainable and affordable, but we must move faster.”
This initiative also includes undergrounding and storm-hardening of lines as well as the deployment of energy storage through batteries and microgrids. This resiliency work will be done in phases through 2030, tackling the hardest hit areas in rural central and southern Vermont first. This was a devastating year for the state as there was an unprecedented string of damaging storms due to climate change.
The Zero Outages filing with regulators addresses the first phase of the initiative and calls for an investment of up to $280 million over the next two years, with $250 million of that for undergrounding and storm hardening lines, and $30 million for energy storage.
The second phase of the initiative will involve another filing with regulators and will seek approval to accelerate and expand beyond 2026.
“We know that we will continue to see an increase in extreme weather events, and research shows that every dollar invested in disaster preparedness and mitigation ultimately saves several times more in avoided response and recovery costs, while also preventing health and safety impacts,” Jeff Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Climate School, said.
GMP points out that major storm costs are escalating and not sustainable. In the past twelve months alone, major storms required more than $45 million in repairs – the most ever. Since 2013, major storms caused $115 million in damage across GMP’s service area, with 60 percent of that in the last five years and 40 percent of that in just the last two years.
GMP has already installed 50 miles of underground lines in rural residential areas and those customers did not experience damage to those lines during these major storms. In addition, where spacer cable has been installed, trees from outside the rights-of-way fell on the lines, but did not cause an outage.
Energy storage and microgrids are also key to this multi-year initiative. Specifically, it would provide residential batteries to customers in remote locations, delivering resiliency where it is needed most first, with a goal to have all customers have energy storage. Vermont regulators recently agreed to GMP’s request to lift the enrollment cap on its home battery programs, so all customers who’d like to get home batteries can now sign up.
If the initiative is approved by the Vermont Public Utility Commission, the first projects could get underway in the spring/summer of 2024.
