POWER March 2021 - 40

COMMENTARY
How to Put the Power Grid
to Work to Prevent Wildfires
Francois Laborie, PhD
W
hile not a new occurrence,
in recent years wildfires
have wreaked havoc across
the western U.S. We have also seen
Mother Nature batter coastlines and
landscapes around the globe, and the
ever-mounting pace of these natural
disasters serves as a warning about
our own level of preparedness. As of
now, the argument can be made that
utility
operators,
governments,
and
even consumers are not doing enough
to mitigate these potential risks. However,
the technology to more efficiently
mitigate and manage the risks of climate
change, while promoting a more
sustainable economy is already in existence.
It just needs to be used more
effectively to promote sustainability,
safety, and ultimately bottom lines.
One area where this is particularly
a challenge is our power grid, which
is increasingly threatened by changing
weather patterns and has become
more strained over time to meet the
needs of growing populations with
new consumption patterns. A lack of
efficient inspection capabilities and
other outdated asset management
techniques means that new risks arise
across the grid-from substations to
customers. Even the power lines themselves
pose a risk, as the right mix of
dry and windy conditions can quite literally
spark fires.
This is top of mind for utilities, as
the industry has witnessed spikes in
company-imposed blackouts in wildfireprone
areas like California. While this
practice has proven to be effective, it
causes significant headaches to customers
and is costly to conduct, leaving
many to desire a more efficient way to
manage the grid during these events.
Data Can Help Prevent Disaster
One way to limit the need for public
safety power shutoffs is through the
effective use of data. For example,
utility companies often rely on manual
52
or in-person line inspections, but given
the sheer scale of activity across
thousands of miles of utility lines and
distribution substations, it can be tedious
and challenging to conduct thorough
examinations. In recent years,
the industry has turned to technology
for help.
This is where integrating Internet
of Things (IoT) sensors, imaging, light
detection and ranging (LiDAR), weather
predictions, and other technologies
into the grid helps operators identify
disturbances or anomalies, analyze
activity in the grid, and even receive
real-time alerts regarding line interference.
This is critical to stopping potential
sparks or flames before they start.
As this data is collected over time, the
effective use of the information can
reduce the risk of wildfires through
the ability to take action when and
where it's needed-quickly and even
preemptively.
However, these sensors, robots, and
other monitoring tools generate mountains
of data. While it can better inform
future decisions, the scale and quality
of data generated can be challenging
to manage and effectively glean insights
from. Thus, operators must look
for ways to " liberate " this data from
its silos in order to power data-driven
insights that mitigate risk and protect
employees, as well as consumers.
Liberate Data to Mitigate Risk and
Boost Efficiency
The abundance of data at the disposal
of utility companies and most organizations
nowadays is unprecedented. The
collection and storage of data has never
been cheaper, but to get the maximum
value out of data, and operate
in a safer and smarter way, operators
must be able to analyze and gather insights
from the data before an impactful
event occurs.
While gleaning insights from data
may seem easy, it can be a major challenge
when uncontextualized. That is
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why operators have struggled to this
day, and also why utility companies
and other heavy-asset industries are investing
in data management. Through
these investments, utility companies
are working to make their organizational
data more readily available and
accessible to stakeholders. This allows
all the data stemming from a utility
company's operation to be processed
in milliseconds, meaning decisions can
be made faster, with strong reasoning
based on data, which is critical amidst
a natural disaster such as a wildfire
where every second counts and a misstep
can result in catastrophe.
The liberation and contextualization
of data to mitigate the risk of natural
disasters is just one use case for utility
companies. For example, large grid
operators can use data to monitor the
condition of distributed transformer networks.
With data-driven insights, grid
experts and employees can proactively
identify risks (without manual inspections)
and schedule maintenance-decreasing
the likelihood of minor failures,
as well as major failures.
The Technology Is Ready and
Waiting
Humanity's continued fight against
Mother Nature has gone on for millennia,
but we are no longer completely
powerless in mitigating the impact and
destruction of wildfires and other natural
disasters. The proper use of data is our
best defense.
Collecting it is no longer enough,
power companies must proactively fuse
their data, making it easily and quickly
available to all stakeholders. This technology
exists today, and is already being
implemented by leading U.S. operators
and other forward-looking companies
around the world. To not only survive
the energy transition, but also the effects
of climate change on operations,
data must be put to work. ■
-Francois Laborie, PhD is president of
Cognite North America.
POWER | March 2021
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POWER March 2021

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