WILDFIRESSensors Help Fight Wildfires
As climate change leads to larger and more frequent wildfires, researchers are using sensors, drones and machine learning to both prevent fires and reduce their damage to the electric grid. Engineers are honing technology to remotely sense electrical arcing and faulty equipment, as well as the direction of spreading fires.
As climate change leads to larger and more frequent wildfires, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratoryare using sensors, drones and machine learning to both prevent fires and reduce their damage to the electric grid. Engineers are honing technology to remotely sense electrical arcing and faulty equipment, as well as the direction of spreading fires.
The need is urgent. The largest recorded wildfire years have occurred since 2004, coinciding with many of the warmest years on record, according to National Interagency Fire Center data. Electric utilities have a large stake in addressing the crisis, given that many wildfires are sparked by power lines, and wildfires can cause widespread electrical outages.
Last fire season, DOE targeted funding for a handful of wildfire projects, including two at ORNL. “We chose this research to be accelerated because we recognize how critical and hazardous wildfire has become due to climate change and other factors,” said Stewart Cedres, a senior DOE technical lead and strategist. Wildfire damage to transmission lines can cause brownouts and blackouts several states away, he noted.
“The work ORNL is doing with sensor technology on drones that can go beyond line of sight is unique and very critical because it allows us to be several steps ahead of issues that can put the grid at risk, making it unreliable and less resilient,” Cedres said.
Cedres said DOE has a twofold interest: preventing fires from being started by the electric grid and protecting the grid from fires. An ORNL team led by Peter Fuhr, head of ORNL’s Grid Communications and Security Group, is working on both these problems. It is also honing fire detection sensing for the U.S. Forest Service, the primary agency for fighting wildfires.
The White House in July pointed to the wildfire research being conducted by Fuhr’s team in explaining how the Biden Administration is tackling the wildfire threat.
Prevention
Sensors placed near power lines or in power electronics equipment can register variations in power flow that lead to superheated sparks. ORNL researcher Ali Ekti is developing an algorithm for rapidly recognizing and classifying these electrical arcing events, which occur when electricity jumps through the air between two conductors.