•  $28.5 million center expected to enhance reliability for Central Valley customers

•  “This … gives our grid operators unprecedented visibility into our electric system”

Pacific Gas and Electric Company says it has brought online a state-of-the-art, $28.5 million electric distribution control center in Fresno.

The facility is the first of three new control centers – other locations will be Concord and Rocklin – that will manage PG&E's more than the 140,000 miles of electric distribution system serving nearly 16 million Californians.

The 24,000-square-foot operations center is supposed to enhance electric reliability and resiliency for PG&E customers throughout the Central Valley and will utilize current and future Smart Grid technologies, the utility says.

Electric operators from the area also played a key role in helping design the new electric grid nerve center.

"This … gives our grid operators unprecedented visibility into our electric system, which will allow them to help limit outages and restore service to our customers as quickly and effectively as possible," says Geisha Williams, executive vice president of Electric Operations.

The new control center has been equipped with systems that support today's current Smart Grid technology, but will also support future upgrades as well, PG&E says. Advanced electronic mapping and SmartMeter data is expected to help operators pinpoint the exact location of an outage. Operators also have the ability to remotely control equipment and work with automated "self-healing" switches that have been installed on electric circuits throughout the Central Valley. The switches isolate outages and help reroute the flow of electricity to minimize the number of customers affected by an outage and restore others more quickly, the company claims.

Constructed with redundant data feeds, the new facility will provide emergency back-up capabilities to enhance PG&E's disaster resiliency capability, it says. Additionally, the center has the flexibility to shift operations to other new regional control centers (Concord and Rocklin) if support is needed in the event of a major storm or natural disaster.

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=27028