What Georgia Power is doing to protect the grid after North Carolina outages in shooting attack

(ATLANTA, Ga.) — With the lights just now coming back on in parts of North Carolina, what’s being done to protect Georgia’s electric grid? WSB’s Anchor/Reporter Jonathan O’Brien spoke with Adrienne Tickle, spokeswoman for Georgia Power.

“We’ve made investments into our electric system such as multiple interconnection points across our grid, including substations,” she said. “Building a more resilient grid is critical, and that’s why we’re making investments in our grid to further strengthen it to insure it’s more reliable and secure through transmission and distribution investments.”

On Saturday night, workers found gunshots and evidence of a break-in at two North Carolina substations. Some 45,000 homes were without power for multiple days, before the damage was repaired.

“We also partner closely with federal, state and local authorities to closely monitor potential threats to security,” Tickle added. “We’ve also been adding and incorporating specific security measures that can include: ballistic walls that can withstand gunfire, fire suppression systems that can automatically extinguish fires to prevent widespread damage, and no cut/no climb protective barriers to maintain security and prevent un-authorized entry.”