Billions of dollars in costs have been incurred in restoring power due to extreme weather causing wildfires and Altalink is doing what it can to be more aware and reduce risks where possible.
Colin Harvey, Municipal and Community Relations Officer for Altalink shared the Altalink Wildfire Mitigation Plan with Woodlands County Council Aug. 14.
"Wildfires have become quite a significant feature on the landscape, “Harvey said. “Unfortunately, in the last few years wildfires have been devastating. With the number of fires that were lit, about 85 of them were caused by power lines, [according to AB Wildfire data]. None of those power line fires ended up being significant but a lot of the significant fires did have a devastating impact on our transmission infrastructure.”
The presentation data showed the 2016 Fort McMurray fire cost more than $6 billion overall.
Altalink takes wildfire mitigation seriously and identifies themselves as a leader in Canada in that realm.
Their priorities are to protect customers and communities, increase resiliency and mitigate uninsured risk.
Not all of the damage to infrastructure is covered by insurance and the costs are significant.
“We can't get our risk right down to zero, but we can do what we can to reduce the risk to the greatest extent possible,” said Harvey.
Altalink started their Wildfire Mitigation program in 2019, and that program just keeps building and expanding.
It is Altalink’s plan to focus on protecting communities while providing safe, reliable power.
There are six areas of focus in their plan.
Enhanced Situational Awareness monitoring of weather and fire weather forecasting including cameras and weather stations.
Facility wildfire risk reduction programs to strengthen the system through modifications to reduce risk and impact.
For example, the replacement of steel arms on power poles versus wooden arms to reduce fire damage.
Altalink is using a scientific approach in assessing fire threat maps to address electrical ignition potential areas.
Incremental Operational practices increase keeping vegetation growth down and doing more inspections.
Altalink commits to having more resources for monitoring and assessment on extreme risk days.
The last resort option is a public safety power shut off preventative measure.
“The public safety power shut off is our last resort but in during those extreme weather conditions where a catastrophic fire may occur, we will proactively turn off the line,” explained Harvey.
“It's not something we want to do but if it's a matter of public safety versus providing that service, public safety is more important.”
Factors considered before executing a Public Safety Power Shutoff are wind conditions, low humidity, dry vegetation, real time observations and whether there is a fire in the vicinity.
Communications before the Public Safety Power Shutoff is planned within a detailed step-by-step process through to when power would be restored.
Public notifications will happen regularly in the event of a Public Safety Power Shutoff.
Altalink will begin their targeted community outreach to increase awareness and emergency preparedness in September.
“We are Alberta’s largest transmission facility operator. We have over 13,000 km of transmission lines and 300 substations,” stated Harvey.
Brendan Pan, System Operations Engineer with the Altalink Wildfire Team, was also in attendance.
