Wildfire preparedness is an ongoing process within the electric utility industry. The risk of wildfires is now ubiquitous across the United States and throughout the year, as different locations have different wildfire seasons. Electric utilities that take steps to mitigate the risk of wildfires within their service areas will be better prepared to minimize insurance costs and prepare for wildfire ignition allegations.
In our last article, we discussed an important new role within electric utilities: Wildfire Awareness Managers. This new manager will have a multi-faceted role as a researcher, team leader, and innovator. In this article, we will discuss some research-focused best practices that a person in this role will be responsible for, including establishing a baseline of data parameters and analyzing prior wildfire data.
By ensuring electric utilities have these two data sets well documented, the Wildfire Awareness Manager will ensure that their electric utility is on track to creating a successful preparedness plan for various wildfire conditions. These research and data-collection aspects of the Wildfire Awareness Manager role will ensure that electric utilities have quality data to present to insurance companies, or when facing any legal challenges.
Establish a Baseline of Data Parameters
The Wildfire Awareness Manager, and the team they oversee, must establish the baseline parameters so that the risks of igniting wildfires in the utility’s service areas are better understood. These parameters include:
Total miles of transmission and distribution lines.
Miles of transmission and distribution lines located in wildfire risk areas.
Location of burnable organic material along transmission and distribution lines.
Standard protective relaying practices, plus any updated practices for wildfire conditions.
Number of transmission and distribution line trip outs that occur each year.
Number of days that medium, high, or extreme risk wildfire conditions occur each year.
This information is readily available for transmission and distribution lines in existence today. The Wildfire Awareness Manager will be responsible for compiling the data into one easily accessible database. The database can be referenced during wildfire season, and updated in the off season or after any wildfire events.
Baseline Data Informs Planning Decisions
Creating a database of baseline data not only helps tackle wildfire risks today, but can also be used to inform planning decisions for new transmission and distribution lines, as well as energy production facilities. Baseline data is essential as more development occurs in remote areas, such as along the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), “the line, area or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels,” according to the U.S. Fire Administration. The WUI area grows by about 2 million acres per year, and poses a risk to communities across the U.S.
Increased human development in the WUI means more energy production facilities are being constructed in remote areas. To transmit energy from these facilities, greater expanses of distribution and transmission lines are being built through wildfire-prone locations. Many new lines are constructed as overhead facilities because these can be built in less time and at lower cost than underground facilities.
Understanding historic wildfire data for transmission and distribution lines already in existence through remote areas will help electric utilities as they plan for future construction. It will provide a baseline from which electric utilities can move forward, keeping wildfire risk reduction in mind for future development.
Analyze Prior Year Data
Another key responsibility of the Wildfire Awareness Manager is analyzing and reviewing wildfire data from year(s) prior. To establish the data set, the manager may initially review three to five years of wildfire data. Once the data set has been established, they will add each prior year’s wildfire data to create an ongoing database of wildfire related data.
This data includes a variety of wildfire-related topics that are relevant to the electric utility, including wildfires within the utility’s service area that were not ignited by faulted power lines, and the responses of other electric utilities to power line-ignited wildfires.
Prior year data can be categorized as First Order Fire Data (1FD), Second Order Fire Data (2FD), and Third Order Fire Data (3FD). Specific data that should be included is outlined in Table 1 below; other data may also be included in this new data set.
Prior year data reviews should include an assessment of faults that occurred throughout the year, including their location, with a focus on what would happen if the same sequence of events occurred on a day when the risk of wildfire ignition was medium, high, or extreme.
Why Build These Databases?
Collecting and reviewing the data outlined above can uncover actions that will reduce the possibility that wildfires will be ignited by faults on transmission and distribution lines. Reviewing data that is from other electric utilities is equally important to reviewing data from within your own service area because it can reveal commonalities that may inspire changes to the wildfire awareness and response plans. Subject matter experts should be able to interpret information about other utilities that is accessible via the internet and provide guidance to improve system performance at your electric utility.
In addition, quality databases that outline an awareness of historical trends in both wildfires and utility occurrences, such as standard protective relay practices and annual line trip outs, can be referred to when insurance companies try to increase rates for wildfire risk. They will help electric utilities to prove that wildfire risk mitigation is already a key focus area.
More work is needed beyond data collection to round out the wildfire awareness plan and fault response strategy. Stay tuned for upcoming articles that provide further insights into best practices that electric utilities should implement to improve their wildfire risk mitigation strategies. Or check out our latest whitepaper, 10 Best Practices to Reduce the Risk of Power Line Wildfires, available to download for free on our website.
Interested in learning more about how Prescient can help your company reduce the risk of wildfires ignited by faulted power lines? Contact us to schedule a free consultation today.
This article was written in collaboration with Prescient's Lead Editor Alyssa Sleva-Horine.
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