Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have developed a new automated drone inspection system that can respond rapidly to unusual electric grid behavior, especially in remote areas that are tough for a worker to reach.

Public power utility crews from across the U.S. have deployed to Florida in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Milton, which is projected to make landfall in central Florida Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

Utilizing omnichannel communication systems can help ensure customers stay in the know and also help utilities respond to the many outage-related calls and emails from customers as power outages, wildfires, rooftop solar systems, and demand response programs create a need for utilities to communicate with customers quickly and clearly.

The PJM Interconnection is exploring a way to identify and process resources that can support reliability in the near term as it transitions to a reformed interconnection process and clears its new service requests, it said on Oct. 8.

Santee Cooper team members are making preparations for the anticipated effects Hurricane Milton may have on Santee Cooper’s service territory, it said on Oct. 8.

Michigan public power utility Lansing Board of Water and Light recently received funding from the Michigan Public Service Commission for an energy project. Specifically, the utility received $734,868.