Need Outage Prevention and Restoration? Invest in These Grid-Edge Solutions

When it comes to outages, two things matter most: prevention and restoration.

You want to keep the power on during blue-sky days and storms. When outages occur, you want to recover as quickly as possible.

To achieve both, the question is always: What should I invest in?

Consider the Power of Pairing Smart Technologies

Infrastructure upgrades and data systems are essential grid investments. Upgrades enhance reliability and performance, while data systems deliver insights that drive maintenance and strategic improvements.

But when these investments are viewed separately, their potential is limited. Hardware without data leaves you operating in the dark. And data without hardware leaves insights sitting idle.

It’s their combination that turns intelligence into action. It creates exponential value through smarter planning, prevention, and restoration. When you combine data, upgrades, and a focused distribution grid strategy, you get results that are greater than the sum of their parts.

So where should you focus these combined investments for maximum impact?

Your Biggest ROI Opportunity: The Grid Edge

The answer lies at your grid edge. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, investments in the distribution grid have risen 160% over two decades, highlighting its importance and need for upgrades.

In particular, the edge presents several key opportunities:

• Most outages happen on the distribution grid—and the sheer volume of lateral lines leads to a higher probability that an issue will occur at the grid edge.
• Often, utilities have prioritized upgrading feeders over laterals, which has left single-phase lines with more dated technology.
• Overhead lateral lines are at risk from faults caused by the elements, foliage, and animals. Since 80% of these faults are temporary, the right technology here can lead to a drastic change in system performance.
• Aging underground infrastructure demands modernization, while newer residential systems can be proactively reinforced for long-term resilience.
• As weather becomes more frequent and severe, customers at the grid edge are often the last to be restored after a storm.

A Winning Combination: Automation with Monitoring Delivers

The conventional approach to modernization involves running assets to failure and then replacing them. This reactive, spot-fix method doesn’t consider the bigger picture.

A better strategy starts with a comprehensive assessment of your distribution grid, followed by proactive upgrades that combine automation with data solutions. This powerful approach can prevent outages and deliver actionable information for rapid restoration.

Here’s how this strategic approach can benefit your grid edge:

Solutions for Overhead Distribution Lines

For Prevention

• Integrate reclosers to avoid outages. Most overhead faults are caused by temporary disturbances. Replacing fuses with reclosers keeps 100% of temporary faults from causing sustained outages. With a switch to S&C’s TripSaver® II Cutout-Mounted Recloser, for example, you stop a significant number of outages and start saving O&M costs immediately.
• Increase segmentation to limit outages. Many utilities improve reliability and reduce the impact of outages by limiting each grid segment to 250 to 300 customers. By deploying a smart device with multiple ratings like TripSaver II reclosers in series across your lateral system, you can create segments that narrow customer counts down to even 100 per lateral.

For Restoration

• Use automation for a faster fault response. The TripSaver II recloser not only automatically restores power during temporary faults, it has a unique drop-out feature when it responds to permanent faults. This visual indication makes it easier for crews to find and address the faulted section for repair.
• Optimize your operational efficiency with data. When Gridware® Gridscope^TM sensors are paired with TripSaver II reclosers, utilities can remotely monitor the frequency of temporary faults and plan maintenance. For sustained outages, this combination provides fault location for efficient restoration.

Solutions for Underground Distribution Systems

For Prevention

• Underground lateral lines. Undergrounding lateral lines is a foundational strategy for preventing outages caused by storms, vegetation, and other environmental threats. Adding S&C’s EdgeRestore® Underground Distribution Restoration System to existing or new installations strengthens your system further. It prepares underground residential systems for rapid recovery from faults that can occur over time, helping to future-proof your network against long outages.
• Leverage data analytics for preventive maintenance. The EdgeRestore system pairs easily with the Ubicquia’s UbiGrid® Distribution Transformer Monitor (DTM+). The UbiGrid DTM+ sends transformer health updates to the UbiVu® intelligent asset-management platform where AI-powered analytics can inform proactive maintenance. Predictive maintenance can significantly reduce equipment downtime—as much as 50%.

For Restoration

• Add automatic restoration capabilities to underground lines. Outages affecting underground circuits tend to be complex, and the effort to find the fault can prolong them. When deployed across residential transformers for underground neighborhood loops, the EdgeRestore system isolates faults and reroutes power from an alternative source. With power restored in under 60 seconds, customers can avoid experiencing a sustained outage altogether.
• Deploy monitoring for greater visibility into faults. Underground distribution systems have traditionally been difficult to monitor. The UbiGrid DTM+ and UbiVu provide visibility into EdgeRestore system operations, alerting your teams to faults on looped circuits at the precise location. It eliminates guesswork during outages, making your operations more efficient and safer.

From Insights to Measurable Results

Modernizing the grid isn’t just about adding new tools. It’s about leveraging how these tools work together to make smart, targeted investments that deliver measurable results. That’s why combining technologies at the grid edge is so powerful: it strengthens the distribution grid where it matters most.

When you align the right technologies with the right locations, you don’t just minimize outages—you make every dollar work harder.