ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — Albany city commissioners approved a $388,800 contract to replace aging underground power lines across the city, outsourcing the labor to improve infrastructure and prevent prolonged outages.

The contract allows a company based in Buford, Ga. to install new cables and protective piping to help prevent damage and reduce the risk of future outages. Albany Utility Operations will supply the materials, while the contractor provides the workers and equipment needed to complete the installation.

A recent outage affected 1,800 customers, including WALB

The project hopes to bring long-term reliability, but utility leaders say it is unrelated to the major outage on Oct. 27 that left roughly 1,800 customers, including WALB, without power. Albany Utility Operations Director Kendall Hodge said that incident actually stemmed from an intrusion and copper theft.

“Someone actually got into the substation and there was a theft of copper cable that was connected to critical components within the distribution system,” Hodge said. “Our system functioned as designed... it isolated those circuits so that there wasn’t further damage done.”

Hodge added that wildlife and overgrown vegetation remain the two leading causes of power outages across the city.

Utility Department faces staffing shortage

The underground wire replacement contract was outsourced because the city’s Light Department faces a 20% to 25% vacancy rate among line workers. But it’s a gap Hodge linked to an industry-wide challenge of an aging workforce and a new generation still in training.

“...the ideal thing would be for that work to be ordinarily and customarily performed by your internal resources,” Hodge said. “I’m not in the mindset of delay. I’m in the mindset of we need to get this done now... we can try to achieve it with our internal workforce, it’s just going to take a longer period of time, and that’s time that I personally don’t think that we want to waste.”

$30 million investment in power grid upgrades

The contract is the fourth part of a rolling five-year Strategic Hardening Infrastructure Plan (SHIP). Over the past three years, the city has invested roughly $6 million in inspecting power poles, replacing aging powerlines, and installing technology that can quickly detect and isolate electrical problems. Another $30 million in upgrades is planned over the next five years.

Hodge said those improvements have helped reduce power outages by 9% over the past two years. He also emphasized the importance of showing customers how their money is being spent.

“If we’re making investments in the system, we should be able to clearly articulate to the members of the commission, the utility board, and members of the community, what return are we seeing on that investment,” Hodge said. “We are trying to shift those perceptions by being transparent and letting folks know... these are the investments that are being made.”

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