JEFFERSON - Jackson Electric Membership Corporation used a bit of new technology during Thursday's ice storm to track and respond to reports of outages.
Spokeswoman Bonnie Jones says a new system, which had only recently been tested, was put into service. Jones said it automatically receives calls concerning outages, groups them together and analyzes them - pinpointing their location and the possible cause. That, she said, saves time by enabling technicians to do a lot of the troubleshooting from their office.
As for outages themselves Thursday, Jones said the EMC experienced only "minor weather-related problems, the most significant of which occurred in Gwinnett County when cars hit power poles in separate incidents near our Jim Moore Road substation." She said 149 customers were left in the dark.
"We (had) six other outages, five involving transformers in Gwinnett and Hall counties, two in Gwinnett and three in Hall, where trees or limbs fell on power lines and caused transformers to fail and one that involved an equipment problem."
Jones said 124 customers were affected, 122 in Hall County and two in
Gwinnett County.
Jones added no outside crews were called in but the "EMC family" had workers ready to roll from other locations had the situation warranted. That, she said, is part of a mutual aid arrangement among EMCs across the country. Jackson EMC sent crews to Oklahoma in January to help restore power when a devastating ice storm struck parts of the southwest.
Saturday
October 26th, 2024
3:26AM
