VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)— Duke Energy, as a way to prepare for the electrical system from going down, has invested in self-healing technology being implemented throughout Indiana, including in Vigo County.
According to a news release from Duke Energy, investments in self-healing technology are one of the ways they are attempting to plan for better storm response and restoration to customers in the event of an outage. This technology can automatically detect power outages and locate the problem section and reroute power around it to restore as many customers as possible. The release states that while crews still have to repair the damaged part of the system, the smart technology can be used to reduce the number of customers experiencing outages by up to 75%.
The release states that in Vigo County alone, more than 6,700 outages were avoided last year. This totaled saving people more than 20,000 hours of total outage time and more than 41% of those individuals benefited during major storms. Last year, the self-healing tech that has been used in Indiana’s power grid helped avoid more than 35,000 customer outages in total and saved a total of 150,000 hours of outage time, where two-thirds of those were during major storms.
“Adding self-healing technology is one of the many investments we continuously make to upgrade our Indiana electric system,” said Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar. “These investments have a direct and noticeable benefit for our customers, particularly during storms when many customer outages are avoided, allowing our crews to respond more quickly to other restoration priorities.”
According to Duke Energy, 30% of its Indiana customers are being covered by self-healing technology. 30% coverage is over double what it was in Indiana in 2023. Duke Energy finished its release stating that it plans to extend the technology to more parts of Indiana in the future.
