Officials with Atlantic Municipal Utilities (AMU) say residents in the community may have noticed AMU crews installing Fiber Optic cable around town. Matt Klein, AMU Information Technology Coordinator says the project has been in the works for months and installation began this Spring. The Fiber Optic Project consists of placing Fiber Optic cable from the Power Plant and Control Center, located near the intersection of Pine and 3^rd Street, to AMU’s Main Office on West 3^rd Street. The special cable is also being installed to the substation and water tower located on 22^nd Street, thereby providing a direct data connection to a majority of the utilities’ facilities.

The cable is being installed to allow AMU to control and monitor equipment, which should improve their reliability and increase our responsiveness to AMU’s customers. And, it will allow a high speed data connection to the 22^nd Street Water Tower area. Kelin says in the near future AMU plans to begin installing Smart Meters to certain parts of their service area, as part of a pilot project that is being partially funded by the US Department of Energy.

With the data connection, the Smart Meter program will allow AMU to obtain meter readings remotely from their office, and obtain real-time data from the electric meter Klein says having a fiber connection to these locations will allow us to provide reliable High Speed Internet Service between all of AMU’s facilities. Previously, AMU utilized a private wireless internet network to provide internet connections from the main office to the water plant, power plant and control center. The connection will also allow AMU to back up large data files located in one facility to a server located in another facility. By doing this, Klein says they hope to greatly improve their  ability to recover data from a minor event or a major catastrophe.