Mississippi Power sets reliability records in 2021
Mississippi Power produced record reliability in 2021 as the final SAIDI/SAIFI results in Transmission and Distribution are the best in the company’s history.
The year-end results show that Distribution SAIDI – which measures the duration of outages – was less than 49 minutes, or 14 minutes less than the 2021 goal.
The SAIFI results – which measures the frequency of outages – ended 2021 at 0.66. In other words, customers averaged less than one outage for the year.
“These results reflect the focus and effort of a tremendous team that works with the singular goal of serving our customers every day,” Vice President of Customer Service and Operations Tommy Murphy said. “A great job was done by all across Power Delivery to generate these record-setting results, all done with Safety at the forefront of every decision we make.”
The main drivers of these record-breaking results were the execution of our grid investment plan, our vegetation management program and mild weather.
In 2021, more than 100 additional reclosers were installed on the distribution system and the Self-Healing Network was expanded to now include approximately 60 percent of our customer base. Additionally, the vegetation management trimming cycle is on schedule for the first time in the company’s history.
“The commitment to invest in our grid is paying tremendous dividends for our customers and the company,” Distribution General Manager Randall Pinkston said. “In 2021, our customers experienced nearly a third less vegetation related outages from the previous year, and they avoided more than 2 million outage minutes because of our Self-Healing Network.”
On the Transmission side, there were no reportable outages for the month of December. For the year, the average Transmission outage lasted less than one minute.
“We continued our proactive work in 2021 to benefit our customers and harden our lines and substations,” Transmission General Manager Melvin Roland said. “Through Condition Based Maintenance, we use diagnostics to determine when equipment needs to be replaced before there’s a problem. We also completed a major project at the Menge Avenue substation that was a key piece of our storm hardening plan.”
Now in its 97th year of operations, Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), produces safe, reliable and affordable energy for nearly 191,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties. Mississippi Power recently was a recipient of the Community Partner Impact Award from the Center for Energy Workforce Development for its innovative and ongoing efforts to build a diverse workforce. With nearly 160 megawatts of approved solar energy capacity, Mississippi Power is the largest partner in providing renewable energy in the state of Mississippi. Visit our websites at mississippipower.com and mississippipowernews.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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