Entergy Arkansas officials say recent upgrades to the company’s distribution operations center will strengthen reliability during severe weather while improving the ability to monitor outages.
Adam Efrein, Entergy Arkansas vice president of reliability, said the facility was reinforced to withstand extreme conditions.
“We essentially made it bulletproof so it can withstand any kind of storms that come this way, any kind of ice storms,” Efrein said. “You name it, this building can withstand it. It’s got two-foot brick walls, so tornado direct hit, we should be able to ride right through it.”
In addition to structural improvements, the center received significant technology upgrades to handle growing volumes of data from modern electrical systems.
“The industry’s changing. With AMI meters, we’re constantly evaluating more data all the time,” Efrein said. “So this building allows us the new consoles. We can analyze the data faster. We understand when outages happen.”
Mark McCarroll, site manager at the Arkansas Distribution Operations Center, said the renovation cost about $3 million and included major infrastructure improvements.
“We also upgraded our electrical infrastructure, so now we have three separate power sources coming two from separate substations and one from the generator,” McCarroll said.
Officials say the improvements will help ensure continuous operations during emergencies while allowing crews to respond more quickly to power outages across the state.
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