How Technology Can Be Used to Prevent Power Outages

When people talk about ways that technology can cut the chances of the power going out, they invariably start to discuss artificial intelligence solutions. They also turn to things like smart grid design and distribution networks that prioritize sending electricity to areas based on demand. All of these are very good ideas, but there’s no reason why local organizations can’t start with simpler improvements.

Technicians don’t have to reach for such lofty goals if they want to improve the power grid. They could instead start by mapping out the times when there’s the greatest demand for power. Commercial-grade database programs are good enough for this task, which is relatively simple compared to doing any actual upgrade work. Once a crew knows what time they have to provide the greatest amount of power, they’ll be in a better position to make adjustments. Naturally, they’ll also want to figure out the exact odds of an outage happening at any given time. This article will explore how technology can be used to prevent power outages.

Making Physical Upgrades

Installing new durable utility power poles is probably the single best way to dramatically improve the existing electrical grid. It’s likely that a majority of outages happen as a result of weather-related trouble. A powerful thunderstorm can knock a few poles over, which in turn can put literally hundreds of customers out. Stronger metal poles will often hold up in cases when older wooden ones couldn’t.

There’s still something to be said for wood in a modern environment, however. Wood is a very flexible material, and new environmentally-friendly treatment methods have helped to ensure that it can hold up to a fair amount of usage. These are much better than the coatings used in the past. Electric companies that replace their older poles with similar ones crafted from more modern materials will quite possibly enjoy longer periods of time between outages.

Building a Self-Healing Grid

That’s not to say that high-tech solutions don’t have a place in the modern grid as well, however. Computer researchers have been talking about the way that new technologies can help them build self-healing file systems that don’t suffer from many of the issues found in traditional ones. Several electrical engineers have proposed applying this same theory to the power grid. By using computerized sensors, the grid could potentially find alternative pathways for electricity if one is blocked.

Say something were to take down a tower in a given area. Machines would be able to find the next possible route for electrical energy to pass through. As soon as it found a new pathway, power would be restored to consumers. Human technicians would then have more time to correct the underlying problem that knocked out service to begin with. By using the same kind of predictive algorithms that technicians utilize when they want to predict the chances of a power outage, smart grid software would also be able to figure out when one might happen. Even a few hours of extra warning time would help to cut down how long it would take to get power back in this sort of case.