Southern California Edison reduces probability of losses from wildfires with infrastructure enhancements
Southern California Edison has reduced the probability of losses from catastrophic wildfires by an estimated 65 percent to 70 percent compared to pre-2018 levels.
The improvements are due to investments in its infrastructure, including ongoing deployment of covered conductor and other grid hardening measures, enhanced inspections, expanded vegetation management, and more targeted use of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). SCE expects to further reduce risk with continued grid hardening investments.
“We continue to prioritize the use of covered conductor and plan to maintain deployment in 2023 and 2024,” Steve Powell, president and CEO of SCE, said. “Covered conductor is a critical tool to quickly mitigate the threat of wildfires that could be caused by debris blowing into power lines. Safety is our number one priority and covered conductor helps keep our communities safe.”
SCE has replaced more than 3,500 miles of bare wire with covered conductor in areas that face a high risk of wildfire. The company has reached this milestone in just over 3.5 years since it began installations in late 2018. Looking ahead, about 40 percent of SCE’s overhead distribution power lines in high fire risk areas, or 4,000 of about 10,000 miles, are slated to be covered by the end of the year.
“We know covered conductor does what it is designed to do,” Powell said. “For example, during significant wind events in November 2021, SCE crews discovered tree branches that had fallen on energized power lines that had been replaced with covered conductor. Our customers on that segment of the circuit did not experience a power outage and, most importantly, a potential wildfire was avoided.”
Also, the company plans to complete expedited grid hardening work on over 50 additional circuits this year, including installing more than 150 miles of covered conductor, along with more sectionalizing devices and weather stations. On these 50 circuits, the company expects an incremental 60 percent reduction in PSPS outage time compared to the last two years. In addition, SCE plans to have completed approximately 6,500 miles of covered conductor, or about two-thirds of its overhead distribution miles in high fire risk areas, by the end of 2024.
“Our crews have continued to work hard to make our communities safer, even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also improving resilience against heat waves and other weather events,” Powell said. “They have done an extraordinary job and remain committed to getting this critical work done expeditiously and understand how important it is for our customers to have safe and reliable electricity.”
