Vital infrastructure upgrades to the power grid are underway on Wilmington Island and though we are headed into storm season, that’s not what prompted the improvements.

Swann Seiler, a spokeswoman for Georgia Power Company, says work crews for the utility provider are making improvements that will impact thousands of their customers. 

Seiler says the upgrades focus on the vital parts of the grid on the island. 

“We have upgraded our lines, out distribution lines, our transmission line, and all of that, in helping our infrastructure should pay off during the storm season,” she said.

Seiler says while the improvements will help during the upcoming storm season, severe weather is not what prompted the upgrades. 

“Georgia Power invests in maintaining it’s infrastructure year ’round and some of the things, transmission lines, distribution substation are on cycles and this happens to be Wilmington Island’s turn,” said Seiler.

The modernization work is scheduled in phases. 

“What that will mean for the customer is that, hopefully, it will respond better and it will respond faster,” she explained.

That substation has smart-grid technology to help pinpoint and re-route outages remotely.

“What it’s designed to do is make sure that we have the best equipment working in that substation,” said Seiler.

The substation improvements are replacing old grid technology with 21st-century upgrades that will help the company as well as their customers.

“We want to make sure that everything is operating as efficiently as it can and this will help us to do that,” Seiler said.

The current work to modernize the electrical grid started back in November on Wilmington.

It is expected to wrap up at the substation and move to the next phase in the coming weeks before the start of the 2018 hurricane season on June 1.