How does Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings work?
We have powerline protective devices that detect when there has been a fault. Faults can be caused by equipment failure or by contact with branches, animals, or debris. These devices will automatically shut off the electricity to that section of powerline to prevent damage.
In normal system settings, these protective devices will make up to two attempts to automatically restore power after an outage. During fire season, we increase the sensitivity settings of the protective devices, so they only attempt to automatically restore power once.
On red flag warning days or when there is extreme fire risk, we disable the automatic restoration feature of the protective devices, so the power turns off after a fault. When this happens, we send crews out to inspect powerlines and other equipment before the power can be safely turned back on. And while this approach increases safety for customers, it may lead to more frequent or longer outages.
Where do you use Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings?
We focus these system settings on our High Fire Risk Zones (HFRZ) and communities located in heavily forested areas like the Wildland Urban Interface. PGE also can adjust system settings across our service area based on weather, heat or other variable risk conditions to reduce wildfire risk in areas that may not be in our HFRZs.
Do the more sensitive settings mean your power is less reliable?
Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings are all about safety. Due to the increased sensitivity, particularly during fire season, customers in areas at higher risk for wildfire may experience longer outages, especially when we need to send crews out to inspect powerlines and other equipment before power can be safely turned back on.
However, the historical impact of these safety settings on system reliability has been minimal. Since 2019, PGE's high fire risk zones have expanded significantly, with line mileage increasing by 10x and the number of customers in these zones increasing by 5x. Even with this growth, the average number of customer outage minutes has not increased proportionally.