Enhancing Grid Resilience: Sequential Strategies for Effective Wildfire Mitigation | EE T&D Magazine

Aug 23, 2024 | Article

As originally posted in EE T & D Magazine

Wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity, particularly in regions like California, posing significant challenges to the electric sector. Addressing these challenges requires a well-structured and strategic approach to wildfire mitigation. This article outlines a series of steps essential for enhancing grid resilience and ensuring public safety, focusing on the collective expertise and methodologies that can be adopted to manage and mitigate these risks effectively.

Wildfire Mitigation Graphic

1. Risk assessment and planning: Understanding our current context

Effective wildfire mitigation begins with comprehensive risk assessment and planning. This can be achieved by utilizing advanced data analytics and environmental monitoring tools, such as Predictive Analytics Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These tools are crucial for identifying high-risk areas, modeling fire behavior and potential vulnerabilities within the grid infrastructure. Thorough assessments are needed to evaluate the condition and placement of electrical infrastructure, which are vital in mitigating ignition risks. These efforts should be integrated into broader planning strategies that include data management, vegetation management, and proactive safety measures such as Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) initiatives to prepare for and lessen potential wildfire risks.

2. Strategy development: Crafting our strategic plan

Developing a strategy is crucial to wildfire mitigation. One engineering consulting firm has collaborated with a major utility on the West Coast to form a specialized IT Design Office. This office is tasked with overseeing and managing a comprehensive suite of grid resiliency programs. By adopting this strategic approach, resources can be optimally allocated, leveraging predictive models and historical data.

3. Technology and innovation: Enhancing capabilities through innovation

Technological innovations play a fundamental role in advancing wildfire mitigation strategies. Predictive modeling and climate assessments, facilitated by digi-tal twin technology, are at the forefront of forecasting and managing wildfire behaviors. These technologies are crucial for real-time asset management and grid hardening, providing utilities with insights into potential vulnerabilities and opportunities for strategic intervention. Incorporating these innovative tools enables more accurate forecasting of wildfire risks and enhances the effectiveness of mitigation measures.

4. Standards & protocols: Ensuring interoperability and compliance

Standards and protocols are essential in ensuring that all technologies and processes used in wildfire mitigation are interoperable and comply with industry norms. This includes rigorous adherence to safety and performance standards, which are critical in validating the effectiveness of mitigation strategies under real-world conditions. The development of architectures and management of grid resiliency programs involve ensuring that all components and strategies adhere to these crucial standards and protocols, facilitating seamless integration and functionality across different systems and technologies.

Surge arrester with disconnect. Source: KEMA Labs - Chalfont

5. Testing and validation: Ensuring applicability and effectiveness

Testing and validation are crucial components of wildfire mitigation, ensuring that equipment not only meets technical safety standards but also complies with stringent regulatory and policy requirements. KEMA Labs’ rigorous testing protocols, such as the CAL Fire exemption tests, play a pivotal role in demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of wildfire mitigation equipment under extreme conditions.

For instance, devices like the surge arrester with disconnect are subjected to rigorous conditions to verify their effectiveness in preventing ignition in high-risk areas. Figure 1 demonstrates the type of equipment and method of testing to ensure that each component not only meets but exceeds the necessary safety standards for wildfire mitigation. These tests are essential for certifying devices like fire protection disconnectors, ensuring they can effectively prevent the ignition of flammable materials around electrical infrastructure. Successfully passing these tests allows such devices to be certified for use in high-risk areas, aligning with both state and federal regulations aimed at reducing wildfire risks.

In addition to individual equipment tests, comprehensive testing setups like the one pictured in Figure 2 are essential for simulating real-world conditions and ensuring the overall effectiveness of wildfire mitigation strategies. Centered in the photo is a pole equipped with the arrester and disconnect; to the left, the supply connection that powers the setup; on the right, the fans used to simulate wind conditions during testing; and at the bottom, a fuel bed that mimics the ground materials found in wildfire-prone areas. This setup allows for a holistic testing environment that ensures every component functions as expected under the most challenging conditions.

At the policy level, manufacturers must navigate a complex regulatory landscape that dictates everything from equipment design to performance benchmarks. Past disasters, ongoing research and

Overview of the whole testing setup. Source: KEMA Labs - Chalfont

a pressing need to address public safety

and environmental concerns often shape these policies. Manufacturers must ensure that their products not only adhere to current safety and environmental standards but are also capable of meeting the requirements of anticipated

regulatory changes. This proactive engagement with policy and regulatory frameworks helps manufacturers design and produce equipment that is effective at mitigating wildfires and compliant with ever-evolving standards. It ensures

that third-party products can sustainably serve the needs of utilities, help utilities meet their compliance obligations and contribute to broader public safety and environmental objectives.

6. Certification and compliance: Establishing trust through certification   

Implementing wildfire mitigation strategies involves the deployment of carefully developed and tested technologies and procedures. This stage is critical for applying theoretical plans in practical settings, including the integration of certified equipment and the activation of emergency preparedness protocols. The process of obtaining appropriately accredited equipment and technically sound testing procedures ensures that all prepared measures function cohesively to enhance the resilience of electrical grids and improve the readiness of communities and utility services in responding effectively to wildfire emergencies.

7. Implementation: Executing the plan

The practical application of developed strategies and technologies is critical. This phase includes the deployment of certified equipment and the execution of comprehensive emergency preparedness plans. It is essential to ensure that mitigation strategies are implemented and integrated across various grid resiliency projects effectively.

8. Continuous improvement: Advancing the approach

Continuous improvement in wildfire mitigation is not merely a recommendation — it is a necessity. As conditions change and new data becomes available, utilities must reassess and refine their strategies to ensure their strategic procedure remains effective. The comprehensive graphic illustrates the sequential framework for effective wildfire mitigation across utility services. By continually refining and updating wildfire mitigation strategies, utilities not only address the immediate challenges posed by increasingly frequent and intense wildfires but also enhance the long-term resilience and safety of electric grids, keeping pace with evolving environmental and technological landscapes.

Addressing the complex challenges of wildfire mitigation requires a disciplined approach, encompassing several critical stages of planning and execution. Initially, the focus is on understanding the risk landscape through comprehensive assessment and strategic planning. Establishing a firm foundation supports the development of targeted strategies that leverage innovative technologies to predict and manage wildfire risks effectively. During the middle stages, the targeted strategies undergo rigorous testing and validation to ensure they meet high safety and performance standards. Finally, these strategies are put into action in the implementation phase, closely followed by continuous monitoring and iterative improvements to adapt to new insights and evolving conditions. Throughout the steps of testing and implementation, the integration of specialized expertise is crucial in refining and advancing wildfire mitigation strategies to enhance grid resilience and public safety effectively.

 

Meet Our Authors

 

Neil Placer

       Neil Placer serves as the director of Utility Consulting Services at EnerNex, bringing over two decades of specialized expertise in the                     electric utility sector. His contributions at EnerNex have significantly impacted major projects, including the development of grid resiliency             architectures and leading grid modernization efforts for several large utilities in the United States.

 

Michele Pastore Headshot

Michele Pastore, chief business strategy officer at EnerNex, excels in strategy, company management and business development. His experience spans engineering, design, and operations of renewable and traditional generating facilities, as well as transmission and distribution infrastructure – with projects across North and Central America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

Matthew Muthard

Matthew Muthard is an accomplished electrical engineer and area manager for North America at KEMA Labs, a role he has held since March 2020. With a robust career spanning over 27 years, Muthard has demonstrated profound expertise and leadership in the engineering sector. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

 

Jeff Hildreth

           Jeff Hildreth is the lab director at the KEMA Labs location in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. Before joining KEMA, Hildreth worked for more than                two decades in the electric utility industry, specializing in laboratory and field commissioning of power system equipment.

Smart Metering (SM) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

Smart Metering and AMI is a transformational process addressing multiple business and technical needs of the utility enterprise. This is more than just smart meters and communications networks; it includes all of the back end applications that can leverage the meter assets, such as outage notification, demand response, call center optimization, disputed billing process handling, pre-payment opportunities, and service connection management methods and procedures, to name a few.

Implementing SM and AMI faces the same business, engineering, and operational challenges as any other across-the-utility information technology endeavors – most notably risk associated with embracing proprietary technology, missing functionality and early obsolescence. Effective SM and AMI development, implementation, and operation relies on a marriage of electric power engineering with information technology expertise: a key component of EnerNex’s expertise and experience.

EnerNex provides an array of engineering and consulting services geared towards intelligent and effective implementation of SM and AMI. This covers all phases of project development, starting with capturing system requirements where our experts leverage a “Use Case” centric view of activities needed to be accomplished and their interaction with systems and other users. Subsequent project steps typically examine other critical areas, such as: modeling of business cases, building inter-department consensus, assembling and assessing system functional requirements and non-functional requirements, developing a system design, hardware and software specifications and standards, complete procurement services including RFI and RFQ process support, supplier rating system, response evaluation methodology, deployment management, and training of office and field personnel.

Demand Response (DR)

Demand response can be as simple as load interruption directed by the energy supplier in response to severe demand requirements, to complex customer defined load management in response to price signals. DR is one of the components of a “Non-Wires Alternative” that many utilities are effectively using to avoid expensive distribution fortification or upgrade.

 

Often the success and/or failure of demand response programs can be linked to program implementation challenges such as rate/tariff design rate structures communication (e.g. price signals) or ineffective incentives used by utilities to encourage customers to accept operational change. The issues of program design, rate structure and customer impact have a tremendous influence on the success or failure of load management initiatives. Demand response has traditionally been used as a tool of the energy industry to ensure system stability. However, the introduction of microelectronics, communications, home automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to the development of cost effective solutions that have the capability to allow the consumer to take control of managing their energy load and ultimately, the price they pay for energy.

EnerNex has the experience and skills to turn your DR program into a successful operational asset and customer engagement process that can deliver value to all parties.

Energy Assurance Planning

Natural and man-made disasters cause an estimated $57B in average annual costs for all parties; large single events have resulted in losses of $100B or more. Events, such as the World Trade Center disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and most recently Hurricane Helene, have demonstrated an acute need to revisit, revise and implement an effective energy assurance plan. Energy assurance plans assess the functionality and interdependencies of buildings and infrastructure systems and the role they play in sustaining service and rapidly restoring critical services to a community following a hazard event.

 

EnerNex assists our clients in developing comprehensive energy assurance plans that mitigate and minimize the impact of energy disruptions. Our experts assess critical infrastructure risks and evaluate appropriate mitigation strategies and can help in developing an effective business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan for utilities and your customers.

Microgrid Development

As the electric grid becomes more distributed and interactive, microgrids are playing an increasingly important role in our energy future. Decision makers at military bases, corporate and institutional campuses, residential communities and critical facilities across the world are exploring and implementing microgrids to meet economic, resiliency and environmental goals. Utility-grade microgrids are being deployed to meet transmission constraints, reliability requirements and safe-havens in the event of a significant storm event.

Microgrid_development Graphic steps to support grid modernization

Bringing together a portfolio of distributed energy resources into a controllable, islandable microgrid comes with its own set of challenges. The key to solving these challenges is in architecting a system to support information exchanges between components across well-defined points of interoperability (interfaces) in a technology independent manner. This interoperability ensures that the system is resilient to technology change. Modern systems engineering techniques must be employed to ensure that individual sub‐systems are clearly identified, their functions enumerated, their data requirements known, and the points of interoperability clearly specified, along with the commensurate monitoring, command and control that is needed to ensure grid stability. With such architecture, we can apply best of breed technology available today to support those information exchanges at interface boundaries but be free to upgrade / change the implementation technology later without causing a ripple effect throughout the system.

Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture focuses on aligning an organization’s business strategies with its anticipated, desired and planned technology enhancements. Enterprise Architecture provides a framework to cost-effectively transition from a current “as-is” technology to future enterprise-wide technological solutions. An effective Enterprise Architecture program aligns business investments with long-term business strategies while minimizing risk and providing superior technological solutions. EnerNex’s key asset is its highly skilled and experienced staff who are closely connected to both the smart grid and EA standards and practices. We provide clients with the insight necessary to operate a fully functioning smart grid, which is flexible, scalable, and vendor independent.

Grid Modernization Roadmap

Utility companies across the globe are continually modernizing their grid. Each company often has different rationales, objectives and priorities. Frequently, smart grid plans are developed for individual, incremental initiatives, rather than as a part of a whole, intelligent and interoperable infrastructure. Planning may be developed around technology choices rather than business and technical requirements. The result of incremental and flawed planning leads to increased cost and risk, lost opportunities, disconnected expectations and dead ends.

 

EnerNex’s approach to grid modernization roadmap development follows a proven, industry-standard approach to grid modernization planning by collaboratively working with the utility to develop a set of prioritized and time-phased grid modernization initiatives unique to its business strategy and objectives. The roadmap developed is holistic, requirements-based, business value driven and actionable. It often builds on and leverages existing applications and infrastructure, and incorporates industry standards to ensure interoperability, flexibility and reduced cost and risk.

Utility Communications

Utility communication and control systems are increasingly interconnected to each other and to public networks and as a result, they are becoming increasingly more susceptible to disruptions and cyber attacks. EnerNex has experience with the various issues relating to development, implementation and optimization including feasibility analysis, design, software development and customization, project management and acceptance. Our expertise extends from being involved in the development of the fundamental standards that support utility communication and automation, through deployment and securing of those resources. EnerNex personnel were heavily involved in development of such standards and protocols as IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5 and DNp3. Our staff played a key role in the EPRI Utility Communication Architecture (UCA) project and the IntelliGrid Architecture effort.

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