Wildfire’s Unsolved Puzzle, Power Lines
There are several collections of data about what percentage of wildfires are caused by downed power lines. One widely accepted figure is between 15% and 20%. It comes from the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
The cost of wildfires is high, so anything that can reduce the risk could be worth tens of millions of dollars a year. The Joint Economic Committee Democrats put the annual figure as high as $894 billion. This included a wide array of items. Beyond direct damage, it adds lost income from wildfires, diminished real estate value, and insurance payouts.
Power lines fall for a number of reasons. Falling trees and high winds are at the top of that list. Usually, the downed line has to hit dry vegetation to spread rapidly. A challenge is that problems with powerlines often go on for months before they are detected.
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Miles Of Lines
While utilities can be fined for sums that reach into the millions of dollars, the sum needed to track powerline integrity is astronomical. PG&E, one of the country’s largest electric utilities, has 160,000 circuit miles. That means across the US, these miles total well into the millions.
The utilities have almost no options. Those options they do have are not very effective. The most widely used approach is that during periods of very high winds in areas that have suffered from extensive drought, they cut off electricity completely. That is a poor solution to a problem that cannot be entirely solved.
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