Savannah's Downtown Electric Upgrade Project Accelerated

Georgia Power is working with the City of Savannah to accelerate the completion time for the company’s upgrade of the downtown Savannah underground electric network.

The new network, started in 2006, was projected to take 10-years to renovate. Georgia Power has revised the schedule and now anticipates being finished by 2012.

Georgia Power will accelerate the pace by bringing in additional resources from across the state, including contractors, increasing the workforce dedicated to the project. “We are committed to providing a state-of-the-art network underground electric system in Savannah quickly and safely,” said Cathy Hill, vice president of the company’s Savannah-based coastal region.

“Because we are working downtown in high traffic areas, this project requires a great deal of coordination with the City of Savannah,” Hill said. “We are working with city and community leaders to coordinate the acceleration of the upgrade schedule, allowing the company to work in additional areas simultaneously and work extended hours,” she explained. The company and the city are cooperating to manage traffic flow, preserve access to businesses and to protect trees.

Georgia Power will continue to evaluate additional measures that will accelerate the work schedule safely. Georgia Power is also working with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Georgia Tech and other utilities to investigate additional devices or methods that could potentially improve the safety of the remaining older system while the upgrade is in progress.

To date, Georgia Power has invested $15 million in the upgrade project for new underground power cables, manholes and transformer vaults.

Completion of the project requires replacing 80 miles of cable, rebuilding or upgrading more than 400 manholes and building eight more vaults in a downtown geographic area bounded by Bay Street (Factor’s Walk) to Oglethorpe Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard to Lincoln Street.