Latest news with #CheriseNewsome
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘From about 11 hours to around 2 minutes': Dominion Energy $50 billion plan reduces outage times ahead of hurricane season
(WAVY) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting at least six hurricanes and at least three major hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin in 2025. It's a prediction that has NOAA officials urging people to plan ahead. The National Weather Service reported around 200,000 Virginian's lost power in this past February's winter storm. They add some people were without power as long as five days. Virginia-based Dominion Energy, seeing the rise in demand, is sharing their $50 billion initiative to keep the power on. 'There's a five-year capital plan that stands at about $50 billion, and about $27 billion of that is directly related to upgrades to the grid to help modernize it,' explained Cherise Newsome, a Dominion spokeswoman. 'We're headed into hurricane season and extreme weather can cause power outages. We want to reduce and prevent the power outages as best as possible and that's where grid modernization comes in.' Hardening the grid looks different depending on where customers live. Some who live in areas where power lines are vulnerable to being brought down are seeing those lines move underground. 'Our goal in the strategic underground program is to bury about 4000 miles of power lines,' said Newsome. 'So far, we've buried about 2500 miles of power lines. That represents about 13% of our power lines. What that does is reduce the elements that those power lines are exposed to. It's been able to reduce outage times from about 11 hours to around 2 minutes.' Additionally, for power lines in less vulnerable areas, Dominion Energy has upgraded the installation and size of power poles. 'We have a grid hardening program which uses taller poles rooted more deeply in the ground so that they can better withstand the elements of extreme weather conditions like thunderstorms and lightning,' Newsome said. Dominion Energy has also improved the way they receive reports about power outages through new sensors that are applied to power lines. You can read more about that and other technology improvements by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Dominion Energy technology helps lessen power outages
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) –The spring season brings with it a lot of rain and powerful storms can cause power outages as Dominion Energy knows all too well. 'Imagine if you're a customer, right? And you lose power. It's a huge inconvenience,' explains Cherise Newsome, a Dominion Energy spokeswoman. 'You can't cook, you can't really go in and out of your fridge like you want to. So we're really sensitive and mindful of the fact that power outages are a huge deal and a big inconvenience. So our goal is to try to prevent and reduce outages as much as possible.' Newsome said that's why they're implementing new technology to not just get power back on quicker, but also keep it from happening in the first place. It's part of a $50 billion dollar project that works to harden the power grid. Some of that money went towards special sensors on power lines that let them know when power stops flowing. 'We install these smart sensors on power lines that help detect faults on those lines,' Newsome explained. 'Our operations center will then analyze that information and can relay that to our line. Workers and crews are boots on the ground who are then going to go to their site to help, assess and inspect what's going on.' Using the information, teams can even reroute power using a new looping Modern Distribution Management System to get you your power back in minutes where the updates are installed. 'For example, there could be 2500 customers in that neighborhood, but they're all connected. So our crews can reroute that flow of power. There will still be a segment of customers who are without a power, because we have to make those manual repairs.' That small segment may be about 400 customers impacted directly by a line needing manual repairs. Linemen are already in their trucks ready to get to that location and make the repairs needed. If it's a tree branch that fell on the line, the Dominion team still asked that you leave that to the professionals for safety purposes. 'We ask you to stay away from it and to call the professionals, because tree limbs that are entangled with the power lines could still be very dangerous and energized,' she cautioned. There new technology in place helps the team know power is out, but calling or reporting the outage online still gives them vital information to better help respond to the outage and get power back on. You can contact Dominion by dialing 1-866-DOM-HELP or you can download the Dominion Energy app. Stay with for more local news, weather and traffic. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
