POWERGRAMS

11 When Mobile Division opened Alabama Power's first distribution control center (DCC) in 1992, it was the start of a new era for the company. "We were looking for ways to improve customer service, become more efficient and restore service faster aer storms, so we decided it made sense to centralize the control of the distribution system and power restoration under one organization," said Mark Custred, who, as the first Mobile DCC manager, was charged with geing the organization off the ground. In June, the DCC commemorated its 25-year anniversary and invited past and present employees to a special celebration where they compared stories and shared memories. Custred, now Saraland Distribution manager, said puing together a new organization wasn't as easy as it sounds. Before then, the job of managing distribution equipment on the system, handling service orders and trouble calls, and responding to customers was divided among five work groups – four service departments and the Mobile Customer Service Center. "The biggest struggle was geing buy-in from employees," Custred said. "There was no consistency. Every group had their own way of doing things, and they all thought their way was best. "It required constant communication to show employees in the offices and the field the benefits of centralizing these processes divisionwide," Custred said. "It took awhile, but we got there. It was satisfying to see us finally come together as a team." Because of the success of that first center, the concept soon began to spread companywide, with DCCs now in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Anniston and Montgomery. Patrick Turner, who has worked at the Mobile DCC since it opened, said new technologies have led to big changes in the way the facility operates over the years. "We've gone from paper tickets and paper wall maps to doing everything on the computer," said Turner, DCC supervisor. "All the information and data is real time. We used to line paper tickets out on a table and match each one to the affected area. Now the system predicts what device is out, and we can send the order directly to a local operations lineman via the computer in his truck." In the early days, there were only two computers in the entire center. But today, system operators each have a computer on their desk with four monitors for tracking activity on the division distribution system. Their other desktop computer has two monitors that operators use as they deal with emails and other day-to-day work. Eric Boykin, DCC manager since 2015, said while technology has made service restoration faster and more efficient, it can be a "handicap." "If we get in a storm situation and the computers go down, we have to know how to work off paper. That's why from time to time we talk in the center and at our annual hurricane meetings about how we would operate if we had to return to paper," Boykin said. Another big change came soon aer Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Floodwaters from the nearby bay poured into the basement Mobile Control Center has silver anniversary INNOVATION by Carla Davis / PHOTOGRAPHY by DAN ANDERSON

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