Eversource Unveils State-of-the-Art Control Centers

Just one year after the historic Thanksgiving snowstorm caused the fourth worst outage in New Hampshire history, Eversource took the wraps off new, state-of-the art facilities that use the latest technology to maintain reliability, respond to power outages and relay information more quickly during significant events.

“The Integrated Electric Operations Center represents a significant investment in reliability which will deliver noticeable results to our customers,” said Joseph Purington, New Hampshire Vice President of Operations for Eversource said in a press statement. “With more information coming into this new hub quicker than ever before, we can be on the scene faster and begin working to restore power to our customers.”

The Electrical System Control Center maps all of the infrastructure in NH’s transmission system.The new Integrated Electric Operations Center puts all aspects of electric system operations and outage response under one roof. In addition to assessing outage reports and dispatching line crews, control center operators are able to remotely isolate trouble spots and reroute power around them by strategically implementing Distribution Automation (DA) technology that Eversource continues to install around the state. This grid modernization technology is capable of dramatically lessening the impact of a power outage, bringing many customers back on line within minutes of an interruption.

ALSO SEE: Integrated Electrical Operations

Recent reliability improvements are already making a difference for Eversource customers in New Hampshire, with shorter and less frequent outages. The average length of an outage is down more than 30 percent since 2010. These investments are expected to further that trend.

Eversource has also expanded its Incident Command Center, which opens during significant outage events, to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to restoration, and recently launched a new enterprise Outage Management System (OMS). This state-of-the-art technology will provide greatly enhanced outage information, including estimated restoration times.

“These technology investments increase our level of awareness during a situation and are part of our comprehensive plan to reduce the number and duration of outages experienced by our customers and improve our ability to communicate timely and accurate information,” said Purington.

The most significant weather events in Eversource’s history have all happened in the last 10 years, added Dean Desaultes, Eversource Manager of Emergency Preparedness.

“While none of us wants another storm like the one we experienced a year ago, the improvements we’re unveiling today make us more prepared than ever for an outage of that scale,” he said.