1. Current Initiatives
  2. Storm-Hardening Projects

Smart Switches

Automatic Switching Units

Over the last 5 years, PSEG Long Island installed 887 automatic switching units (ASUs), or smart switches, to minimize the number of customers who are affected when equipment fails. The units reroute power around the failed equipment, isolating the immediate area where the damage occurred, bringing the lights back on for the surrounding customers.

 

New Equipment Installations
For the installed smart switches to be most effective, new equipment is being added to substations. This equipment will enhance communication between automated switches and OMS (outage management system) which speeds up restoration and increases availability of information to customers. Further, smart switches are used to isolate damaged portions of circuits, improving the resiliency of the grid by reducing the number of customers impacted by a single-line outage.

Locations
Equipment was installed at the Patchogue, Great River, Babylon, Pulaski, Canal, Riverhead, Sills Road, Wildwood, Port Jefferson, Greenlawn, Lake Success, Syosset, Manhasset and Hauppauge substations.

Additional sites where equipment will be installed include: West Babylon and Baldwin.

Proposed components being added may include:

  • An antenna may be added to an existing pole, or a new monopole and antenna will be installed.
  • A generator and propane tank will be installed adjacent to each monopole to provide redundancy to ensure that equipment is functional at all times, including if a substation is damaged or offline.
  • Communications shelter, usually 9-foot long by 16-foot wide and about 10-foot tall.
  • New fence where needed
     

Smart Switches