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  1. Overhead Transmission

Wildfire Resistance: SCE Shares Best Way to Assure Structures Survive

Sept. 21, 2022
SCE has adopted a fire test protocol that simulates the heat and intensity of wildfire.

The frequency and intensity of wildfires pose severe problems for utilities, as both distribution and transmission lines are frequently routed through grasslands and forested areas to minimize aesthetic impacts to urbanized areas. Having been affected by wildfires in the past, Southern California Edison (SCE) has taken a proactive approach to fire harden the structures on its system.

SCE has adopted a fire test protocol that simulates the heat and intensity of wildfire. It has tested a variety of products to that protocol to determine the effectiveness of that product to either protects its structures from wildfires or to increase the fire resistance of its structures when exposed to wildfires.

Included here are images of the results of SCE"s testing and some real-world results. For the full, in-depth article, see Structural Materials That Increase Resistance to Wildfires from T&D World's August 2022 Structures supplement.

About the Author

Clinton Y. Char

Clinton Y. Char is the manager of the Transmission Engineering, Structural Analysis group at the Southern California Edison, Co. He has BS and MS degrees in civil engineering and is a registered professional engineer with more than 28 years of transmission and distribution experience. He is a member of ASCE and is currently involved with four ASCE task committees. He has made numerous conference presentations and has published 18 technical papers.

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About the Author

Brian Flynn

Brian Flynn ([email protected]) has worked as a technical specialist/scientist of wood products for Southern California Edison since 2008 and expanded from wood products to pole specialist in 2019 when he took over as composite pole expert. He currently represents Edison on two national standard committees (AWPA and ANSI) which set standards for the utility wood industry. Flynn has a bachelor of sciences degree in forestry and natural resources from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He also has a master’s degree in business administration and is Lean Six Sigma trained.

About the Author

Sergio Arambula

Sergio Arambula ([email protected]) is currently a transmission engineer under the Transmission and Distribution Engineering Organization at Southern California Edison. He has a B.S. in civil engineering from Washington State University and an M.S. in civil engineering from Purdue University. He has published and presented at numerous conferences such as TSDOS, EDM International, and EPRI IUWG.

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