Seattle City Light testing self-healing power lines in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park

The first automated switch is installed in Shoreline
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Equipment designed to speed restoration after outages

Seattle City Light will test automated switching technology in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park that is designed to speed the restoration of service when a power line is damaged.

It detects outages, isolates the section of a circuit that is affected and then re-routes power to restore service to the areas that are not directly affected. All of this takes place in a matter of seconds.

“Customers will no longer have to wait for a crew to arrive for the first steps of power restoration to begin,” Energy Delivery Operations Director Bernie Ziemianek said. “And the crews will know where to go to make repairs, further speeding the restoration of service.”

Planned installation area
Map courtesy Seattle City Light

City Light will test the equipment through storm season. If the equipment proves successful, the utility intends to install it on other feeder lines across its service territory.

The entire project to install the distribution system through Shoreline and Lake Forest Park is expected to last until early July 2015.

From April 6-30 construction hours are planned from 8:30am to 5pm. Field testing will occur in June.

Installation in process
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The equipment is being installed on two feeder lines and is expected to be operational before storm season begins in the fall.

The equipment, called distribution automation, is part of a larger effort to build a smarter grid in Seattle. Other components include technology to monitor and control substations, advanced meters and components to optimize the delivery of electricity to customers. As City Light installs this technology, the utility will be able to reduce energy losses, improve the integration of electricity generated by solar panels on customers’ roofs and provide enhanced support for customers with electric vehicles.

“We are using technology to make our distribution system more reliable, our operations more efficient and to make sure that City Light remains the nation’s greenest utility,” said Michael Pesin, who is the architect of the Seattle Smart Grid.

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to about 750,000 Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.