Wildfire Risk Mitigation

Why It’s Important

Utilities face serious challenges related to wildfires and need a combination of technology solutions to mitigate risks.

One challenge is a side effect of wildfire protection settings. Reduced use of reclosers leads to more frequent permanent faults with longer outage durations.

Another important challenge is minimizing the risk of the power system igniting fires when equipment fails or when vegetation contacts distribution lines.

Both challenges are addressed effectively with an advanced analytics and line sensing solution.

How it Works

In addition to fault detection, advanced analytics and intelligent line sensors work together to enable high probability outage prediction in high-risk wildfire areas. Outages can be predicted by capturing high resolution waveforms of precursor anomalies. When these anomalies become more frequent, an outage prediction alert is sent to utility planners or forestry workers who quickly inspect the identified overhead feeder segments. Once the issue is located, repairs and/or tree trimming can preempt outages and potential ignitions.

Key Features

Sentient Energy’s wildfire mitigation solution is powered by the Ample Analytics Platform. Intelligent MM3ai overhead line sensors detect faults and capture high resolution waveform anomalies along feeders. Fault and anomaly data are sent via cellular communication to the Ample Analytics Platform and fault information can be integrated directly into SCADA, OMS and ADMS systems. For preempting potential ignitions, advanced analytics are applied to anomaly data to build outage predictions based on patterns of known precursor anomalies.

Fault detection and integrated GPS for location
Waveform capture at 130 samples per cycle
Line-powered sensors on feeders with 10 amps
24-hour continuous sensor operation after outages
Cellular public and private LTE (including Anterix)
Ample cloud deployment for outage prediction
Daily reporting of outage predictions with probability ratings
Ability to integrate weather and other data

Wildfire Mitigation Benefits

Utilities benefit from Sentient Energy’s wildfire mitigation solution in two important ways.

First, line sensors improve situational awareness. When wildfire protection settings are on, line sensors are essential to provide remote visibility and enable fast fault-finding. With line sensing, outage durations are commonly reduced by 20% or more.

Also, with advanced analytics and line sensing utilities can identify equipment and vegetation issues before they cause faults. With accurate predictions utilities can take actions to preempt outages and avoid the related ignition risks. This field-proven capability adds a proactive element to utility wildfire mitigation programs.

Importantly, our analytics and line sensing solution can be deployed very quickly in days or weeks, allowing utilities to show short-term progress on wildfire risk reduction.

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