An Investment Prioritization Model for Wildfire Risk Mitigation Through Power Line Undergrounding

TL;DR

This paper presents a systematic model for prioritizing power line undergrounding to mitigate wildfire risks, enabling utilities to make informed, risk-based investment decisions for grid resilience.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to estimate wildfire ignition damage for each transmission line, aiding in effective undergrounding prioritization based on risk assessment.

Findings

Effective risk estimation for wildfire ignition across line segments

Demonstrated approach on IEEE 30-bus system with 43,712 scenarios

Supports risk-informed decision-making for wildfire mitigation

Abstract

Grid-ignited wildfires are one of the most destructive catastrophic events, profoundly affecting the built and natural environments. Burying power lines is an effective solution for mitigating the risk of wildfire ignition. However, it is a costly capital expenditure (CapEx) requiring meticulous planning and investment prioritization. This paper proposes a systematic approach to estimate the potential wildfire ignition damage associated with each transmission line and accordingly offers a priority list for undergrounding. The proposed approach allows electric utilities to make risk-informed decisions for grid modernization and resiliency improvement against wildfires. As a case study, we examine the likelihood of wildfire ignition for each line segment, i.e., between two high-voltage towers, under diverse weather conditions throughout the year. The studies on the standard IEEE 30-bus test system, simulated on 43,712 scenarios, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.