Distribution Systems

Joe Wheeler EMC operates and maintains approximately 3600 miles of distribution lines in Lawrence and Morgan Counties in Alabama. The power is delivered to its customers via 23 substations Joe Wheeler EMC owns and/or maintains.

We at Joe Wheeler EMC are ever striving to improve the system to maintain reliable service to its consumers. Even with this we cannot guarantee your power will always be on. Just like everything in life, the distribution system is affected by many different problems occurring often at a very inconvenient time. Things creating problems for the distribution system include weather, animals, equipment problems or failure, trees and vines, etc. All of the above have an effect on providing electrical service to you.

In the past few years we at Joe Wheeler EMC have been implementing several projects to help us serve you better. We have and are continuing to install a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system to help us know when there are problems at substations and certain pieces of equipment on the distribution system. This equipment also helps provide data back to the office on loading which helps us make decisions on circuits that get upgraded. The SCADA system also helps save money on day to day operations.                                       

Joe Wheeler EMC is continuing to install additional sectionalizing equipment to help reduce the number of customers affected for certain outages. Lightning arresters are being installed to help reduce the number of lightning related outages. Animal guards are being installed on all new installations to help reduce the outages due to birds, squirrels, etc.

We are continuing to improve our mapping and outage management systems in order to help us determine where outages are occurring. This helps us make better decisions on where to dispatch crews.