SEPB Uses Technology to Serve you Better

Technology is a wonderful thing. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines technology as the "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge as technological advances increase the usefulness of modern devices.” The Scottsboro Electric Power Board today embraces technology to see if we can improve the services we deliver to you and the customer service we provide for you.

As I write this article, SEPB employees are using technology investments we have made over the last few years. Our Electric Meter department is deploying “smart meters” that will enable us to remotely read the meter, thus saving manpower and vehicle expense. We are planning to have every electric meter automated by 2012. This technology will allow us to read all 8,500 electric meters in less than 15 minutes! Meter reading today takes our meter readers about 100 hours a month using two pickup trucks spread out over 4 weeks to complete.

The April Wind Storm gave our Electric System SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acqusition) System a real workout. More than 1,500 data points are reported back in real-time to our SCADA system via our Metro Fiber Network. Our engineers can monitor and control substation and line circuit breakers and other power system devices. Years ago, lineman or engineers had to drive to each substation, open the gate, enter the substation and find the appropriate switch to control. Our SCADA system hasn’t save a lot of money, but the convenience and collective information it provides us is invaluable to us in times of severe storms like the April Wind Storm. Future plans are to automate more Electric System devices and provide some automatic switching that would automatically by-pass damaged facilities and the majority of the customers to be restored.

SEPB is moving ahead to provide our customers even more convenience. While many utilities and telecommunication providers have closed their offices in the 80’s and 90’s, SEPB expanded our offices at 404 East Willow Street adding a second drive through and an expanded customer service lobby. In 2003, SEPB added online bill presentation and will now make it possible to pay online in the coming weeks. Today’s modern convenience of online banking and purchasing should be enjoyed by all our customers so they can pay their SEPB utility bill online.

SEPB’s Cable System is one of the most successful municipal telecommunication projects in the United States. SEPB is only one of 3 cities in Alabama who provide its’ citizens Cable TV and we have become the first municipal local telephone provider in Alabama. We now serve over 10,000 services to approximately 5,200 cable customers in Scottsboro. SEPB Cable System has saved Scottsboro cable subscribers over $10M since the project’s inception in 1998. This $8.5M investment in technology has been a financial and technological boon for the people of Scottsboro.

SEPB is going to continue to use technology to improve the services we deliver to you. We are careful not to choose technologies that have not matured or are too expensive to deploy. We wait patiently for a particular technology to survive and sustain itself. Only then will we consider purchasing and deploying that technology in our utility.