Warmer temperatures, drier conditions and the expansion of urban areas into fire-prone landscapes are creating a perfect storm for more frequent and intense wildfires. In 2023 alone, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported a staggering 56,580 wildfires that scorched over 2.6 million acres across the United States. In California, a state particularly vulnerable to wildfires, a state audit revealed that between 2016 and 2020, electrical power caused 10% of all wildfires and was responsible for nearly one-fifth of the total burned area. The consequences of these fires are devastating. Wildfires disrupt critical infrastructure, including transportation networks, communication systems, water supplies and power and gas services.
Utilities take these risks seriously and given the ongoing threat to public safety and property, it is vital that they continue to seek ways to improve preparedness and reduce risk. In the face of escalating wildfire dangers, utilities must bolster their decision-making capabilities and harness the power of cutting-edge data to mitigate risks. By leveraging smart endpoints and grid edge intelligence, utilities can significantly enhance their ability to detect, predict and respond to wildfire threats.
How Smart Endpoints Improve Wildfire Detection and Prevention
Utilities can amplify their wildfire prevention strategies with next-generation smart endpoints. Unlike traditional meters that merely measure energy consumption, the latest smart endpoints are equipped with sophisticated sensing capabilities and communication technologies that allow utilities to collect data beyond just energy use and gain a more comprehensive picture of grid health and potential wildfire risks.
Smart endpoints analyze data constantly and can get in front of potential problems, enabling real-time monitoring of grid conditions that is both pervasive and always on. This allows for immediate detection of anomalies or equipment malfunctions that could both be dangerous to the public as well as potentially spark wildfires. For example, a smart endpoint can detect changes in the voltage sinusoid that may indicate one or more phases of a distribution circuit are arcing to each other, to vegetation, or to the ground. Abnormal voltage fluctuations can also indicate problems such as damaged lines or equipment. The real-time data and analysis from smart endpoints enable early detection of these anomalies, allowing utilities to take corrective action before it escalates into a wildfire.
By collecting and analyzing high fidelity waveform data over time, smart endpoints enable AI-based predictive analytics, which can forecast potential equipment failures before they occur. This allows utilities to proactively replace or repair equipment or aging infrastructure before it malfunctions, which drastically reduces the risk of electrically ignited fires. Smart endpoints can also identify power disturbances and enhance grid resilience by analyzing waveform data. Advanced analysis of waveform data can identify sections of the grid that can be safely shut down during extreme fire risk conditions without impacting the entire network, helping prevent wildfires while minimizing inconvenience to customers. While power shutoffs can be disruptive, they can be a crucial strategy as a last resort to prevent sparking and potential wildfires from igniting and minimize the spread of wildfires and protect communities.
Using Advanced Technologies to Extinguish Wildfire Threats
As we confront the realities of a changing climate and increasingly severe wildfire seasons, it’s imperative for utilities to take proactive measures to safeguard communities and critical infrastructure from the devastating impacts of wildfires. By leveraging the capabilities of smart endpoints, utilities can gain real-time insights, predict potential hazards and take preventive measures to reduce the risk of wildfires. Increasing the total resolution of the distribution grid in the control room is a vital next step for any Utility considering or embarking on deployment of next generation metering systems. Advanced communications and declining cost for distributed computing and new generative AI, machine learning and integration between systems in both the IT and OT realms, will continue to drive risks out of electric supply. This step is mandatory to achieve low carbon goals and support new load growth on the existing infrastructure, safely.
Matt Smith is a senior director of Grid Management at Itron, where he sets the global business and product strategy for the grid management line-of-business. This involves managing company initiatives to provide networking solutions that enable utility use cases such as FLISR, CVR/IVVC, demand response, distributed energy resource (DER) management and outage management.
