Our industry leading Reliability Analytics Monitoring Program (RAMP) is boosting electric reliability for homes and businesses across Michigan.
This game changing line sensor technology provides snap shots of failures on our electric power lines – pinpointing problems ranging from broken regulators to burnt cross arms.
“Each sensor leaves a fingerprint of what went wrong, and then we can send somebody out immediately into the field to fix the issue,” said Bharat Goel, an electric engineer who oversees our line sensor program. “And they can tell the future for what’s about to happen to prevent a bigger issue from happening.”
We are investing nearly $24 million in smart technology this year, including line sensors. The tech
enables crews to work more efficiently by identifying problems faster, leading to less frequent and shorter power outages. And the predictive analytics provided allow us to generate cost savings that can be passed down to our customers – since any equipment failures can be fixed during planned rather than during emergent events, such as storms.
The program continues to help us down the path of our Reliability Roadmap, our ambitious plan for a smarter and stronger electric grid. This year, we are adding about 3,000 line sensors – the most we’ve ever installed in a given year.
And so far, the line sensors are paying major dividends. From Jan. 1 through March 24, 2024, the sensors helped save 95,160 customer outage minutes. That’s compared to 80,198 for all of 2023.
“The program has been a game-changer so far, and we expect this impressive trend to continue,” Goel said. “As the number of our line sensors increase, the program will continue to grow. And this only supports our efforts to prevent as many outages as possible for our customers.”
