The Promise of the Next Century

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The new century brings the promise of great technological advances and benefits to AEL&P's customers. Many of these innovations will require additional sources of electrical energy and increased reliability of those power sources.

AEL&P recognizes this and is actively working to ensure its customers have an even more abundant, dependable flow of electrical power to the tools of business and the conveniences of home.

New, powerful microcomputers have enabled AEL&P crews to automate the functions of AEL&P's generation facilities, transmission lines and substations. These computers and the monitoring devices linked to them are now the backbone of AEL&P's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.

The SCADA system allows one central location to monitor all generation plants, substations, feeder loads, and other system conditions. It also enables AEL&P staff to remotely control generation plants and switching devices at substations and along transmission lines, so loads can be shifted as required for the quickest restoration of service to customers during a system outage.

With the SCADA system, AEL&P now has the ability to reduce the number of outages to an absolute minimum, and restore power in the quickest, most efficient manner possible.

AEL&P's system must be brought back gradually after a system wide outage. The SCADA system allows the Thane operator to remotely open and close over 20 individual feeders. This is in great contrast to the earlier years, when Hugh Macauley, AEL&P's chief engineer during the 60's and 70's, and his crew would have to travel to each substation to manually open each feeder. After energizing the transmission system, they would then return to each substation to re-close each feeder.

Innovations like this have become a tradition at AEL&P. For 100 years we have worked constantly to deliver the best, most dependable electrical service possible to our customers.

AELP's corporate goals are as follows: to provide reliable and safe electric service, to provide among the lowest average electric rates for regulated utilities within Alaska over the long run while maintaining financial integrity and utilize electric resources efficiently.

At AEL&P we welcome the 21st Century and another 100 years of service to the residents of the City and Borough of Juneau.