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Board funds outage‑map service and supports rollout of pole monitors to improve public power communications
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Summary
The board approved a $12,500 budget amendment to subscribe to a third‑party outage‑mapping service and to host a public outage map link on the town website. Town staff said 130 pole monitors will be installed this fiscal year to provide neighborhood‑level outage visibility; limitations and phased rollout were discussed.
The Highlands Town Board on Oct. 16, 2025, approved an initial budget amendment of $12,500 to subscribe to a third‑party outage‑mapping service and publish a public outage map on the town website. The board also heard an update from electric system staff describing a phased plan to install monitors on distribution poles to improve outage detection and public communications.
Electric system lead Matt Schuler said the town has begun deploying monitors that report the status of reclosers—the devices that protect larger segments of the distribution system—and plans to install about 130 monitors this fiscal year to reach smaller neighborhood circuits down toward fuse level. Matt explained that per‑home monitoring would require roughly 3,000 devices or an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system, which the town does not currently have.
Matt described a vendor proposal from a company called DataCapable (as an example provider) to host a mobile‑friendly public map that would reflect outage clusters based on the town’s monitor data. The platform would accept multiple data sources and could be expanded later if the town acquires AMI or SCADA systems. The initial cost presented to the board was a $2,500 setup fee plus $10,000 for the first year; an ongoing annual subscription (~$10,400) and modest annual increases were noted.
Commissioners discussed capabilities and limits: the map will display outages at the monitored recloser or aggregated neighborhood level rather than individual homes, and staff said residents should continue to report outages by phone to Macon County dispatch for service calls. Matt cautioned that the system should not replace standard dispatch procedures until reliability is fully tested; false positives can occur if a monitor loses power or battery.
A motion to approve the $12,500 budget amendment passed by voice vote. Commissioners said the public map should be linked from the town website; staff will continue installing monitors and work on integrations for more automated data collection in the future.
