Albany moves forward with underground cable upgrades to improve power reliability

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — Albany city commissioners approved a $388,800 contract to replace aging underground power lines across the city, outsourcing the labor to improve infrastructure and prevent prolonged outages.The contract allows a company based in Buford, Ga. to install new cables and protective piping to help prevent damage and reduce the risk of future outages. Albany Utility Operations will supply the materials, while the contractor provides the workers and equipment needed to complete the installation.A recent outage affected 1,800 customers, including WALBThe project hopes to bring long-term reliability, but utility leaders say it is unrelated to the major outage on Oct. 27 that left roughly 1,800 customers, including WALB, without power. Albany Utility Operations Director Kendall Hodge said that incident actually stemmed from an intrusion and copper theft.“Someone actually got into the substation and there was a theft of copper cable that was connected to critical components w