Atlantic City Electric has completed upgrades to its Higbee substation in Atlantic City, which serves numerous casinos, the Atlantic City Convention Center, and Stockton University, among other major destinations in the city. This upgrade enhances service for these customers and fortifies the local energy grid against extreme weather.
Atlantic City Electric worked closely with customers served by the substation to accelerate this work, and ensure upgrades were completed with minimal impacts and before many businesses began reopening. These upgrades provide greater ability to respond to outages should they occur and more redundancy and operational flexibility to help prevent outages from occurring.
"As more businesses reopen and the economy begins to recover, it's more important than ever to provide our customers with reliable energy service," said Felecia Greer, vice president, Large Customer Strategic Solutions & Customer Advocacy for Pepco Holdings, which includes Atlantic City Electric. "This project is absolutely critical for improving reliability for a number of casinos and other major Atlantic City entities. We're glad to be able to support the city at this pivotal time as the summer starts to ramp up and the state continues to reopen."
At the substation, crews replaced aging infrastructure with new, state-of-the-art energy equipment, including new switchgear which serves as the hub for the distribution of power and helps protect electric equipment within the substation and new capacitor banks that are used to control voltage levels. Crews also upgraded 12 distribution lines leading out of the substation with more modern equipment to further improve reliability for local customers and visitors to the region. To prevent power outages caused by coastal flooding, the company installed a new control building designed to meet the 100-year flood elevation standards and to be remotely operated if accessibility to the substation is hampered during a major storm.
The substation upgrade is part of a broader reliability improvement effort Atlantic City Electric has implemented across South Jersey to help reduce outages and enhance resilience of the local energy grid. This effort includes modernizing infrastructure, such as transmission and distribution lines, and adding greater automation on the local energy grid with new substations and equipment.
This work on Atlantic City Electric's energy infrastructure has contributed to customers' experiencing continued improvements in the reliability of their energy service. Over the past five years, ongoing investments in the local energy grid and new innovative technologies have driven a 22% decrease in the frequency of electric outages.
