Smart Grid, Smarter Communities
Smart Grid, Smarter Communities:
AVECC Invests in Reliability and Resilience
Smart grid improvements are currently underway in the Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative Corporation (AVECC) service territory. The Department of Energy (DOE) GRIP grant awarded AVECC with $18 million in 2023 to strengthen the resilience, reliability, and affordability for members across 14 counties.
The smart grid project began in 2018 with a system wide fiber buildout which was completed earlier this year.
Now, the next step is the implementation of the “Beyond AMI to True Grid Intelligence with Distributed Automation” project
"Grid resiliency and modernization are a priority of AVECC,” said CEO Al Simpson. “We began our Smart Grid project in 2018, and we are fortunate to be awarded this critical funding to advance and accelerate our ultimate goals of providing safe, reliable, and affordable power."
During this project, AVECC will:
• Replace 66,000 meters with advanced smart meters.
• Install 2,400 fiber mini-aps to expand communication capabilities.
• Upgrade 1,200 reclosers, 200 regulator panels, and more than 150 capacitor panels to improve outage response and voltage regulation.
System Engineer Samantha Renard said, “Being able to build out this infrastructure really gets to serve our members. They not only get the data for their energy usage, but we can also make them a more efficient grid which allows us to always provide reliable and responsible power, while reducing costs and putting dollars back in their pockets.”
Engineering Manager Chris Howe added, “From the membership standpoint, it’s going to be a lot better reliability coming along. The metering is going to start reporting automatically, letting us know when things are off. The amount of data we’re getting back is tremendously more than what we have now.”
The updates will be completed in phases over the next four years. An approximate timeline is:
Smart Grid - Reclosers, Capacitors and Regulators
2026 Johnson, Newton, Pope, Sebastian, Franklin, LeFlore, Crawford, Adair and Logan counties
2027 – Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Yell, Crawford, Sequoyah and Sebastian counties
2028 – LeFlore, Crawford, Sequoyah, Scott, Pope, Johnson, and Sebastian counties
2029 – Crawford, Adair, Sebastian, Franklin, Logan, Scott and Yell counties
Smart Grid - Metering
2026 – Franklin, Crawford, Johnson, Newton, Pope, Sebastian, LeFlore, Logan, Yell and Madison counties
2027 – Sequoyah, Crawford, Adair, Sebastian and Scott counties
Engineering and Operations Director, Barret Ewing shared, “Our ultimate goal is to make the best decisions for our membership and make sure that this co-op is here for 85 more years. We want to set ourselves up in a way that we are innovative and make sure that we continue to be progressive and not stagnant.”
AVECC’s commitment to improving the members’ experience is paramount and the core of our motto, Changing the Communities We Serve.