Consumers Energy to install nearly 3,000 line sensors, other smart technology this year
In a bid to improve electric reliability in Michigan, Consumers Energy recently announced plans to invest nearly $24 million to deploy nearly 3,000 line sensors and more than 100 automatic transfer reclosers (ATRs) in 2024.
“Consumers Energy has made a commitment with our Reliability Roadmap to ultimately restore power in 24 hours or less,” Chris Laird, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations, said. “New technology like this is an important tool as we make the grid more reliable for all our customers. 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.”
For Consumers, it would be a record number of smart devices rolled out in a single year. ATRs have, however, helped prevent hundreds of thousands of outages over the past few years alone, according to the company, making their isolation capabilities an attractive one for reliability improvements. The devices detect power loss and automatically reroute power in another direction. Meanwhile, line sensors predict problems on the grid and proactively alert crews to the issue location.
The energy provider is Michigan’s largest, providing natural gas and electricity to 6.8 million residents. The smart technology deployments are part of its Reliability Roadmap, which calls for a stronger, upgraded electric grid in the years to come.
