SDG&E turns increasingly microgrids, line undergrounding and upgrades to address wildfire threats

With California now firmly in the grip of wildfire season – as much as there is any single season for it any longer – San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) this week touted years-long work to decrease wildfire risk in the southern portion of the state, through a mix of infrastructure changes and education.

While encouraging customers to prepare for possible wildfires and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) during the Santa Ana wind season, which runs from September to December, SDG&E also highlighted its work on microgrid deployment, line undergrounding, line hardening, and deployment of new technologies to limit the size and scope of outages.

“Just one wildfire could significantly impact the health and safety of our customers, which is why our team works so hard to strengthen our electrical grid to help reduce the risk of wildfires and the impacts of Public Safety Power Shutoffs in our high fire-threat areas,” SDG&E CEO Caroline Winn said. “This work also benefits our entire region in that it helps to defend against other extreme weather conditions as we build a smart energy grid of the future that can support the clean energy transition.”

In the past two years, the company has successfully undergrounded more than 70 miles of what it dubbed its riskiest overhead infrastructure and plans to underground nearly 50 miles of lines this year alone. At the same time, the deployment of sectionalizing devices onto lines has picked up pace, which could reduce the impacts of necessary PSPS by isolating faults. In general, more than 430 miles of overhead power lines have also been replaced with steel poles.

For critical installations, the company also deployed – or is deploying – seven microgrids to allow facilities such as fire stations, schools, and public safety infrastructure to be re-energized even during outages and PSPS incidents off the main grid. Other protections included covered wires added to more than 40 miles of power lines for extra protection from falling debris and the increased use of falling conductor protection technology, which de-energizes lines before they can hit the ground. The latter was dispatched to areas most at risk of fire spread.

Cameras and air quality sensors with smoke detection technology, hundreds of weather stations, drone inspections, A.I. modeling, and satellite imagery have all likewise evolved under the company’s efforts over the last decade, as it moves as much toward prediction efforts as a response.