CHARLEVOIX — Charlevoix’s city council authorized Power System Engineering to engage in contract negotiations with Aclara for an automated metering infrastructure project at their most recent city council meeting.
PSE was retained by council about a year ago, according to Charlevoix City Manager Mark Heydlauff, in order to begin drafting this process — a plan that has been in the city’s long range strategies for at least the past six years.
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There is $1.2 million in the electric fund budget for the work that will be done — work that will upgrade the city’s electric meters and bring about a more accurate understanding of grid occurrences and thus a more streamlined understanding of how to handle problems as they arise.
"In the old days, you would design a system for what you thought would be the heaviest loads,” said Heydlauff, explaining how a city would "size up" when ordering a transformer in anticipation of what was to come.
"The data that we will get back from this advanced metering will allow us to better understand how, when and where power is consumed. So that rather than over-engineering parts of the system for the unknown, we can better track where things go," said Heydlauff.
"So, when it comes to things like shifting loads between the two Charlevoix substations (there is one on the south side and north side of the city), we can better predict system maintenance by better understanding the power supply load throughout the city. It gives us better data to better manage the system so that over time we can size things more appropriately to make things more reliable," he said.
Heydlauff said this will save taxpayers' money and there will not be a large fee increase as a result of the upgrades.
“This is built into the rate structure,” he said. “This a capital improvement that we have planned over time that rates have already been paying for."
In the example of a power outage that occurred on Thanksgiving last year as the result of a squirrel eating through a transformer, Heydlauff said that rather than the current system that only gives a general area of the outage area, the new system will give data indicating exactly what meters are without power and give the city the ability to more quickly address the problem.
The project will be rolled out over the next three to four years, according to Heydlauff. Residents will receive prior notice before new equipment is installed on their homes.
For questions about the upcoming upgrade, call city hall at (231) 547-3259.
To read details about the upgrade from the recent city council meeting visit charlevoixmi.civicclerk.com/Web/Player.aspx?id=7&key=-1&mod=-1&mk=-1&nov=0.
Contact reporter Annie Doyle at adoyle@charlevoixcourier.com