Minimizing Wildfire Risks through Advanced Structural Inspection and Modelling Techniques

Global climate change is creating many challenges which utilities need to address. One of the most critical challenges is the increased threat of wildfires. The reliable operation and maintenance of the electric infrastructure continues to increase in importance and complexity as utilities address the challenges of wildfires. Southern California Edison (SCE) has approached this challenge from two fronts. The first front is to look at methods to fire harden its system with the second front being to minimize the risk of ignition from wildfires. This paper will provide the details on SCE’s wildfire risk mitigation program. The goal of the risk mitigation program is to minimize the chances of initiating a wildfire due to electrical infrastructure issues. Extreme environmental conditions, such as high temperatures, extremely low relative humidity, and high winds, combined with an aging grid infrastructure increases the probability of some part of the electrical grid becoming an ignition source. To address this concern SCE has developed a comprehensive program to perform detailed inspections of all its transmission structures. This program uses advanced inspection and analysis tools to provide a comprehensive assessment of its structures and identifies any structures which may require remediation.