How Utilities Can Leverage Technology for Enhanced Situational Awareness
The 2018 Camp Fire in California’s Butte County served as a tragically stark reminder of the destructive power of wildfires and the innate vulnerability of our infrastructure. A single downed power line ignited a blaze that consumed over 150,000 acres, consuming entire communities and claiming 85 lives in the process.
The financial repercussions for the utility firm involved, PG&E, were vast, amounting to $23 billion in lawsuits and debts. Perhaps most worryingly, as catastrophic as the Camp Fire was, it’s far from being an isolated incident, with similar, although less deadly, events occuring on an increasingly frequent basis.
Today, utility firms are struggling to deal with a convergence of challenges—rising wildfire severity, more frequent and intense storms, and increased public scrutiny. The liability landscape has also shifted dramatically, extending beyond mere equipment failure. As shown by the deadly Winter Storm Uri in Texas, the failure to adequately prepare for and respond to climate-driven events can also result in dire consequences, including loss of life and severe legal repercussions.
The message is clear: reacting to equipment failure or weather events is no longer a workable strategy. Proactive approaches that provide solutions prior to alarm bells ringing are an operational necessity now for utility firms.
The Need for Proactive Readiness
The traditional “replace on failure” approach to asset management is now a relic. Utilities are having to embrace a new methodology, transitioning from reactive responses to proactive solutions. This shift hinges on a fundamental understanding of asset condition and lifecycle. The Maui wildfires, for example, highlighted the inherent dangers of aging, uninsulated infrastructure, particularly wooden poles. Proactive asset replacement, guided by detailed data and predictive analytics, is far more cost-effective and reliable than scrambling to repair damage after a disaster.
Central to this approach is the ability to identify and manage risks effectively. This involves meticulous data collection, encompassing geospatial asset location, maintenance equipment status, component failure rates, and even avian protection risk assessments. By creating unique risk profiles for different system components, utilities can tailor their modernization strategies, ensuring that resources are allocated where they’re needed the most.
The Power of Data and Technology
The foundation of any effective wildfire mitigation plan lies in data—more specifically, how it’s processed. Data from disparate platforms needs to be cleansed, standardized, and integrated to create a comprehensive, unified view of asset health and operational status. Within this, real-time data accessibility is vital, allowing proactive asset replacement, efficient vegetation management through GIS, and rapid emergency response during wildfires and storms.
Sensing and Detection
Sensing and detection technologies serve as the eyes and ears of fire mitigation, providing real-time insights into environmental conditions and potential hazards. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) provides valuable insight into the importance of these technologies in gathering the data necessary to make informed decisions.
Remote Sensing
Satellite imagery, aerial photography, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) offer comprehensive, large-scale views of landscapes. These technologies carefully map vegetation density, revealing potential fuel loads, and precisely define topography, crucial for predicting fire spread.
LiDAR, in particular, penetrates vegetation to create detailed ground models, exposing hidden risks like dry underbrush. This data allows utilities to proactively identify high-risk areas, allowing for targeted vegetation management and infrastructure hardening, dramatically reducing the likelihood of wildfire ignition and propagation.
Weather Monitoring
Advanced weather stations and sensors deliver real-time tracking of essential meteorological data. These systems precisely record temperature, humidity, wind speed, and direction, providing the granular information needed to make accurate fire risk assessments. By continuously monitoring these variables, utilities can anticipate changes in fire behavior and implement rapid mitigation strategies.
High-resolution weather data also enables the creation of sophisticated predictive models, allowing for proactive measures like power shutoffs in high-risk zones, providing an extra layer of protection for communities and infrastructure.
Fault Current Indicators
These fundamentally important devices are strategically placed along power lines to detect abnormal electrical currents, a telltale sign of potential faults. When a fault occurs, indicating a potential break or short circuit, utility operators are instantly alerted. This rapid detection allows for quick intervention, preventing sparks or downed lines from igniting surrounding vegetation.
With these fault locations pinpointed rapidly and accurately, utilities can efficiently dispatch repair crews.
Acoustic Sensors
These types of sensors are designed to detect the subtle sounds of arcing or other electrical anomalies, providing an early warning system for potential ignition sources. Arcing, a common precursor to electrical fires, emits a distinct acoustic signature that these sensors can identify. This technology is particularly valuable in remote or densely vegetated areas where visual inspections are difficult.
Video Analytics
Cameras equipped with AI-powered video analytics provide continuous surveillance, allowing the detection of smoke plumes and other signs of fire in real-time. The systems use sophisticated algorithms to analyze video feeds, identifying anomalies that indicate potential problems. When smoke or flames are detected, automated alerts are sent to utility operators, triggering a rapid response. This technology significantly improves situational awareness, and offers valuable post-fire analysis, providing valuable insights into fire behavior and potential mitigation strategies.
Understanding the Big Picture
Situational awareness is the ability to understand the current state of a system and its surrounding environment. This requires integrating data from multiple sources and presenting it in a clear, concise, and actionable format.
Key elements of situational awareness include:
Real-Time Dashboards
These dashboards aggregate data from various sensors and systems, offering a unified view of operational status. They display critical metrics like grid load, weather patterns, and equipment health, enabling quick assessment of potential risks. Visual cues and interactive elements improve comprehension, allowing operators to make informed decisions rapidly.
Geospatial Visualization
Using maps and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), utilities overlay asset data with environmental factors like vegetation and weather. This visual representation highlights high-risk zones, showing the proximity of infrastructure to potential fire hazards. Operators can quickly identify vulnerable areas and plan targeted mitigation efforts.
Alerting Systems
Automated alerts instantly notify personnel of deviations from normal operating parameters. These systems flag critical events such as fault currents, temperature spikes, or smoke detection, allowing for timely interventions. With customizable thresholds and notification methods, tailored responses can be created quickly and effectively.
Communication Platforms
Secure communication platforms facilitate rapid information sharing among field crews, control centers, and emergency responders. The systems allow smooth coordination during critical events, making sure everyone has access to up-to-date information, resulting in faster and more effective mitigation efforts.
Modeling and Analytics – Predicting and Preventing Wildfires
With fire prevention being infinitely more preferable to firefighting, modeling and analytics tools help predict wildfire behavior and identify high-risk areas.
These tools involved in this approach, include:
Fire Behavior Models
These advanced simulations use complex algorithms to predict how wildfires will spread, taking into account factors like wind, terrain, and fuel load. Visualizing potential fire trajectories and intensities, utilities can evaluate the effectiveness of various mitigation strategies. This allows for the optimized use of resources and for accurately informed decision-making that places utility companies ahead of the situation.
Risk Assessment Models
These models integrate a wide range of datasets, including weather forecasts, vegetation maps, and infrastructure data, to pinpoint high-risk zones. By analyzing these factors, utility firms can identify areas prone to ignition and rapid fire spread. This allows for highly targeted preventative measures, such as vegetation management and infrastructure hardening.
Predictive Maintenance Models
Combining historical data with machine learning systems, these models forecast potential equipment failures before they occur. The systems analyze patterns in sensor data and maintenance records, giving utilities a ‘heads-up’ to perform proactive maintenance, preventing costly outages and potential ignition sources.
The Wider Benefits of Data-Driven Wildfire Mitigation
When it comes to utilities, stopping wildfires is, of course, the main advantage and driving force of these data-driven systems. However, the benefits of data-driven operations extend beyond this, permeating every aspect of a utility’s function and its relationship with the community it serves.
Increased Reliability: Data-driven maintenance, by its very nature, ensures that assets operate at peak performance. Real-time sensor data and predictive analytics pinpoint potential failures before they occur, allowing for efficient interventions. This approach not only minimizes the risk of equipment malfunctions that could spark wildfires but creates a safer working environment for utility personnel, reducing exposure to hazardous situations.
Improved Customer Service: It’s a defining characteristic of the modern market that customer expectations are higher than they’ve ever been. The ability to predict and prevent power outages that data-driven operations provide, minimizes disruptions to customers. With faster response times and automated dispatch, the service that utilities can offer is simply better and more reliable. If you’re looking to increase customer satisfaction and trust, data-driven insights serve as one of the most effective marketing strategies that a utility firm can pursue.
Cost and Labor Savings: Proactive maintenance and targeted infrastructure upgrades reduce the need for costly and disruptive emergency repairs. Optimizing resource allocation based on predictive models, can save utilities significant amounts in terms of labor hours and long-term operational expenses. Data-driven decisions help make sure that investments are made in the most effective and efficient way possible, maximizing the return on every dollar spent.
Strategic Investment: A comprehensive data repository, enriched with both historical and real-time information, allows utilities to identify areas that require strategic investment. This approach allows far more effective decisions to be made about technology upgrades, infrastructure enhancements, and personnel training, keeping finances deployed where they’ll have the greatest impact.
The Role of Inter-Industry Collaboration
Data’s power lies not just in its scope, but in its dynamic nature—it’s a record of change. By meticulously comparing historical and real-time data, utilities can track subtle shifts in all manner of operational parameters, from vegetation growth to overarching climate trends. This constant feedback loop helps nurture a culture of continuous improvement with an organization.
Data-driven mitigation doesn’t operate in a vacuum, however. Inter-industry collaboration is vital to the equation. Sharing insights and best practices with peers, from other utilities to forestry experts, accelerates learning and strengthens collective defenses. Crucial partnerships extend to local fire departments, community groups, and property managers, forming a united front. In this respect, the community in which a utility firm operates is both a valuable data source and the ultimate beneficiary of mitigation efforts.
How Thread’s UNITI Workspace Can Help
As should be clear by now, data-driven strategies are the key to effective wildfire prevention strategies—and improved operational efficiency across the board. Thread’s UNITI Workspace is engineered to make this process more efficient and effective, providing a centralized platform that transforms disparate data into actionable intelligence.
Consolidating information from diverse sources—sensors, weather stations, inspection reports—UNITI Workspace allows utilities to gain a holistic view of their operational landscape. A platform that provides streamlining data management on any scale, UNITI opens the doors to the real-time visualizations, advanced analytics, and predictive strategies needed to predict potential hazards and fire risks before they become critical real-world situations.
- Consolidate Data: Break down data silos and create a unified view of asset health and operational status.
- Enhance Situational Awareness: Visualize real-time data on interactive dashboards and maps.
- Improve Collaboration: Facilitate seamless communication and coordination among teams.
- Streamline Workflows: Automate tasks and processes to improve efficiency.
- Gain Actionable Insights: Leverage advanced analytics to identify trends and predict potential hazards.
- Centralized incident management: Providing a single view of all events, and allowing instant access to all relevant information.
The efficiency and flexibility that UNITI Workspace brings to the data management equation means the days of purely reactive maintenance may well be over. Providing the sound foundation that utility firms need to embrace data-driven solutions and strategies, UNITI Workspace is building safer grid infrastructures, more efficiently run utility firms, and safer communities in general.
To find out more about the advantages that UNITI Workspace can bring to your utility firm, you can contact us here.
