MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — When the power goes out at your home, it can be a great interference in your day-to-day life.
The longer it's off, the worse it gets. However, a power outage at the Baldwin County Regional Airport could be a bigger problem.
“We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we have to have power to run our navigational aids, our lighting, our gate systems. It runs everything — it does,” airport manager Bruce Hood explained.
Georgia Power says they want their power grid to be more reliable. So, they’re installing new smart technology to their power lines which they hope improve their system.
“This device is called an automatic recloser,” said Cassandra Cox, Georgia Power’s Area Manager. “It helps us have remote access to all of our power lines.”
Cox says they've identified Milledgeville as an area with frequent outages according to their outage data and maps.
With the new smart technology, that will cover 12,000 customers– including a school, fire department and the Baldwin County Regional Airport– if a line ever goes down in the area, the system steps up into action.
“The smart switch will actually locate and tell us where the problem is,” she said.
It’ll also isolate the problem.
“It only affects those customers right where the issue is. We're able to restore power to the other customers that are fed down the line,” Cox said.
At the airport, Hood says the power goes out around every four months.
“I have to come over day or night and man the airport while the power is out until it comes back on,” he said.
The longest it’s been out has been four hours, but even if it’s a small disruption, it still has an impact.
“A little quick glitch on the power grid will cause all of our navigational aids to have to be reset and that takes a little bit of doing,” Hood said.
He says, while the power being out isn’t necessarily dangerous, it does keep the airport from being able to function normally. Like planes coming into Baldwin County.
“With them having to divert to another airport and renting a car to come back to Milledgeville can be a little costly and disruptive in their travels,” he said. “It’s a little unnerving when you’re sitting at your house and there’s a storm brewing, and you’re thinking ‘Am I going to have to go to the airport?’”
With the new technology, Georgia Power say it's more cost-effective as well because it's controlled remotely.
“It’s a way for us to talk to the lines without having to visit that location with a bucket truck or a crew."
Georgia Power says they've been installing the tech for a few years, but it's new to the industry in the effort to upgrade America's older power system.
“So, we are building the future of energy,” Cox said.
A future with fewer and shorter outages, like at the Baldwin County Airport.
“It enables us to not worry as much when a storm comes through knowing that we’ll have power. It’ll definitely alleviate myself or my employees having to come to the airport waiting for it to come back on,” said Hood.
Georgia Power crews say it takes a full 8- 10 hours to install one smart switch.
They say they've invested $10 billion in the technology and other improvements to the power grids over the last decade.