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As part of its ongoing efforts to protect customers and communities from the growing risk of wildfires, Southern California Edison has proposed additional safety measures against forest fires when filing with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
The proposed $ 582 million Network Security and Resiliency Program (GS & RP) Aligns on the forest fire mitigation plans required by Senate Bill 901, one of the bills on forest fires passed by the Legislative Assembly the month last and currently awaiting the signature of the governor.
"The devastation caused by the 2017 and 2018 fires leaves no doubt that California needs to re-evaluate how we collectively prepare and prevent fires," said Phil Herrington, Vice President, Transmission & Transmission Division. Distribution of SCE. "This includes a role for utilities, which go beyond existing state standards and traditional utility practices to incorporate leading mitigation measures from around the world, selected for their effectiveness.
"We are taking a holistic approach and are proposing to implement measures by the end of 2020 that will further strengthen our infrastructure, strengthen our situational awareness and improve our business practices," said Herrington. "We will also continue to work with state leaders on policies to reduce the risk of catastrophic damage from forest fires while ensuring a fair distribution of costs."
Initiatives to strengthen the infrastructure
Isolated wires: SCE will replace insulated cables with insulated cables on nearly 600 miles of overhead lines in areas of high fire risk. This will be the first large-scale deployment of insulated cables in the United States, designed to reduce the risk of fire.
Although up to 10% of California firefires come from power lines, more than half of the ignitions associated with distribution lines are caused by objects such as metal balloons, tree branches, and leaves. of palm tree. While bare and uninsulated cables meet California state standards and are widely used by utilities across the country, insulated cables can dramatically reduce the potential for ignition resulting from a failure. contact with foreign objects. In addition, insulated wires offer the greatest overall value over other mitigation measures such as subway lines.
Where applicable, composite fire resistant poles will be used when the poles will need to be replaced to support the increased weight and diameter of the insulated wire.
SCE plans to replace approximately 3,400 miles of overhead lines with insulated cables between 2021 and 2025; funding for this work would be included in future general rate applications.
Current limiting fuses: SCE installs 15,700 of these devices, which break the current faster and avoid the potential creation of their own heat source during melting compared to standard industry standard fuses. In addition to reducing the risk of fire, installing current limiting fuses should increase reliability by segmenting circuits to isolate problems, thereby limiting the number of customers affected by a failure.
Remote controlled automatic recuperators (RAR): Under normal conditions, the grid automatically tests any circuit experiencing a temporary interruption or a "fault"; if the fault condition no longer exists, the circuit is quickly reactivated. Under red flag conditions (low humidity and high wind), SCE uses RARs to prevent affected circuits from reactivating automatically so that SCE crews can physically inspect the lines before reactivating them. SCE currently has 930 RARs and is installing 98 more, in addition to updating the RAR parameters to increase the speed and sensitivity of the RARs to react to line faults.
Situation awareness projects
High Definition Cameras: SCE will deploy up to 160 high-definition cameras, which will allow emergency management personnel, including fire agencies, to respond more quickly to emerging forest fires and save time .
Meteorological stations and modeling tools: SCE will install up to 850 weather stations, starting with 125 weather stations in 2018. Data from meteorological stations will be used by a new advanced weather modeling tool capable of predicting weather conditions unless third of a thousand. This information can be used to inform operational decisions and optimize resource allocation during emergency situations.
Improve operational practices
Vegetation management: Although CPUC has adopted aggressive new rules on pruning in areas of high fire risk, SCE is proposing to do even more: SCE will inspect all trees within 200 feet of its electrical facilities and eliminate trees likely to damage them. "These trees are far enough away from electrical equipment, they are not covered by existing clearance requirements, but close enough to pose a potential threat in high winds," Herrington said.
Public Safety Power Outages (PSPS)As a last resort, the company proactively deactivates parts of its system under extreme fire conditions to protect customers and communities. The company will implement a number of measures designed to minimize the inconvenience to customers, including:
- A new emergency notification system to send personalized messages before, during and after a PSPS.
- Portable Community Power Trailers so customers can charge their personal devices (cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) and continue to receive fault updates and public safety information while staying connected with their friends and their family.
- A pilot project deploying drones operating beyond the visual line of sight to quickly study power lines after a PSPS in order to restore energy more quickly.
Infrared Inspections: SCE expands the use of infrared inspection for overhead distribution lines to identify equipment at risk of failure. Visual inspections, while useful, do not identify potential problems inside sealed components or covered objects that could lead to component failure.
"Keeping in mind the safety and costs for the consumer, we believe that the portfolio of projects we propose will work together to provide a comprehensive approach to minimize the risk of wildfires and increase the resilience and reliability of our network. "
If the GS & RP is approved, the average monthly bill for a residential customer would increase by about $ 1.20; CARE's qualified customers would benefit from an increase of approximately 81 cents per month. Total costs include $ 175 million in O & M expenses and $ 407 million in capital expenditures.
About Edison, Southern California
An Edison International (NYSE: EIX) company, Southern California Edison, is one of the largest electricity providers in the country, serving a population of approximately 15 million people through 5 million customer accounts in an area of .
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