NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — You’ve probably seen it during a storm: Your lights blink once, maybe twice, and you wait to see whether the power is about to go out.
Dominion Energy says that blink can actually be part of the power grid responding to trouble.
The technology is part of the company’s broader grid hardening program and can help detect and isolate problems on the system.
Lauren Doughtie, a shift manager in Dominion Energy’s Regional Operations Center, said certain devices on the grid can detect when something is wrong, such as a tree or tree limb coming into contact with a power line.
“That's why it's opening and reclosing to give it a chance, saying, was this just kind of a blip?” Doughtie said. “Our main goal is to, OK, let's isolate that area.”
During a recent nor'easter, Dominion said about 6,000 customers in Newport News initially saw their lights blink. Doughty said within less than a minute, power was restored to about 4,000 of those customers.
The remaining outage was isolated to about 2,000 customers as crews responded. They later found a tree had fallen on a power line near Thorncliffe Road and Warwick Boulevard.
Doughty said the automated technology can help limit the number of customers affected by a problem, but customer reports still play an important role in helping crews locate trouble.
“Please call and report it to us. Help us pinpoint the location that there may be an issue,” Doughie said.
Dominion also advises people who see downed wires to stay a safe distance away and assume the wires are energized.
So the next time your lights blink during a storm, it may not necessarily mean you are about to lose power. It could be the grid responding to a problem and, in some cases, working to keep it from affecting more customers.
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