Georgia Power Promises Upgraded Safety Plan

Georgia Power’s top executive in Savannah says the utility will have a plan by the end of this month for making safety improvements to the downtown electrical grid after two recent fires sparked underground explosions.

Cathy Hill, the company’s regional vice president for coastal Georgia, said that possible options include temperature gauges to monitor underground cables and restraints to keep manhole covers anchored in place.

Explosions last week and in August blew off manhole covers and rattled office buildings in downtown Savannah. No one was injured.

Georgia Power began two years ago to replace the city’s aging network of underground cables, but that work won’t be finished until 2012.