ComEd of Chicago explains.
If Smart Grid technology had been in place, here’s how it would have minimized the impact of the storm: ComEd would have known customers were out of power without them having to call us. Technology would have pinpointed outages allowing us to dispatch crews more quickly to restore service. Digital automation would have rerouted power or corrected a problem before an outage occurs meaning fewer customers would have seen outages, and thousands of customers may have never experienced an outage.
With our current grid, the sad truth is utilities often don’t know there is a blackout until customers call.