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Many Bainbridge residents may have experienced frequent power outages in recent weeks. The Post-Searchlight spoke with Georgia Power for more information on the outages and what residents should expect.

According to Fred Rudbeck, area manger for Georgia Power, crews are currently working at making the local electric grid “stronger and more resilient.”

“These investments include working on local substations, as well as transmission and distribution lines that carry the energy needed to power homes and businesses in the area,” he said in a statement. “We know any power outage is inconvenient; our aim is to prevent outages or shorten those that do occur. We expect reliability to improve when the project is complete in about three weeks.”

One reason for the increase in outages during this work is due to some of the grid’s automated features being disabled.

“Typically, the Georgia Power grid makes use of automated ‘self-healing’ features. This means unwanted contact by tree limbs, vehicles, animals, etc. causes protective devices like circuit breakers to stop power momentarily and then automatically restore service,” he explained. “Since line crews are actively working on energized lines, we temporarily disable this ‘self-healing’ feature for their safety. That means unwanted contact from the previously mentioned items during this time can cause a longer disruption of service until our employees can locate the issue, and safely restore power.”

One example of this was the power outage on April 15, during which time an animal came into contact with the power lines, causing an extended outage.

Work on the immediate grid is expected to be completed by June 6, after which point the automated “healing” feature will be utilized again.