Improved Power Reliability to Mountain Counties Results from Blue Ridge Electrics Largest Investment
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383, Ext. 3213; Pager: 1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
West Jefferson, North Carolina (September 25, 2007) – The largest investment in the cooperative’s history to ensure reliable power continues to flow is being completed this month by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation after nearly two years of construction and over 10 years in the planning.
The nearly $20 million project increased the capacity available to serve the cooperative’s mountain districts by 50 percent. It ensures some 52,000 members in Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties continue to have adequate, highly reliable electricity to meet their needs now and in the future.
Nearly $20 million was necessary for upgrading or building several miles of higher capacity transmission line. The project also included a new state-of-the art substation in West Jefferson, which now serves as the “hub” for providing power to Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties. The Beaver Creek and Horse Gap substations were also modernized.
Mike High, director of engineering services, said the new system utilizes fiber optics, the latest in protective relaying devices, and other technology that helps Blue Ridge offer members two benefits: high reliability and faster power restoration when an outage does occur.
“Through automated communications between our substations and the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system located in our corporate office dispatch center, we’re able to monitor and control power quality 24 hours a day as if we were standing in the substation,” he explained.
An example would be when lightning strikes a power line. The system will now tell the SCADA system exactly where the “fault,” or problem, is located so that dispatchers can better direct linemen to the location. This allows linemen to correct a problem and restore power quicker. “This is definitely an improvement over the time it could take to patrol the entire line to locate a problem,” High pointed out.
“The new electric facilities and high tech systems allow Blue Ridge Electric to be more proactive in responding to power quality issues in addition to providing the highest in power reliability and restoration to our members,” he said.
Blue Ridge Electric is a member-owned cooperative serving some 70,000 members in Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Caldwell, Avery, Alexander and Wilkes counties.
