Wildfire seasons are growing longer and more intense, placing even small electric utilities under pressure to protect their communities. Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in high-risk areas, especially in the western U.S., have poured resources into wildfire mitigation measures like insulated power lines, aggressive equipment upgrades, and Public Safety Power Shutoffs. Rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities face the same rising wildfire risks but often with a fraction of the budget and workforce of a large utility.
The good news is that smaller utilities can adapt “big utility” wildfire strategies in scaled-down, cost-effective ways to significantly reduce ignition hazards. This post explores practical measures––from prioritizing covered conductors on critical lines to leveraging pole inspection data ––that community-owned utilities can implement.
Line workers install covered (insulated) conductors on distribution lines in forested areas as a wildfire hardening measure. Covered conductors (as illustrated in Figure 1, below) greatly reduce arcs and sparks if contact occurs with trees or debris. Southern California Edison (SCE), for example, installed thousands of miles of covered conductor in wildfire zones as part of its grid-hardening program. Studies by utilities indicate this measure can cut wildfire ignition drivers by approximately 60–90%.
Figure 1: Utility pole with covered conductor in a ‘tree wire’ configuration.
Even if smaller utilities, such as a small cooperative or municipal utility, do not have the resources to blanket all their lines with covered wire, they can target the most critical spans in high fire-risk zones. This strategic installation on high-risk segments can yield big safety gains. The key is to prioritize the worst danger zones: sections of line that run through dense vegetation, areas with frequent high winds, or near communities at the wildland-urban interface.
Major utilities found that wildfire risk is not uniform––95% of PG&E’s wildfire risk was traced to just 22% of its distribution lines. A smaller utility can perform a similar analysis (even if informal) to identify the top-risk 10–20% of its lines and focus hardening efforts there. Replacing a few miles of bare wire with covered conductor in those key areas can dramatically reduce the chance of an ignition from a downed line or vegetation contact.
Smaller utilities can:
Smaller utilities typically conduct regular pole and line inspections for maintenance––this existing data can be a goldmine for wildfire mitigation planning. Rather than treating wildfire hardening as random “spot fixes,” examine past inspection records, outage reports, and even patrol notes to flag equipment and locations that might pose a fire hazard. The key things to look for include aging or damaged hardware (e.g., worn clamps, splices, or insulators that could fail and throw sparks), expulsion fuses that eject hot metal when they blow, and areas with recurring vegetation infringement. These are weak links where a fault could ignite a blaze.
By overlaying inspection data with wildfire hazard maps (fuel loads, historical fire weather), utilities can pinpoint the “hot spots” in their system. A comprehensive study highlighted that long-term wildfire risk reduction requires detailed asset inspections and data analysis, since risk is highly concentrated in specific grid sections. In practice, this means if a cooperative’s records show a certain circuit has had multiple wire-down incidents or equipment issues, and it runs through dry brush, that circuit should move to the top of their mitigation list.
Smaller utilities can:
Automatic circuit reclosers are invaluable for maintaining reliability––they momentarily shut off power during a fault and then quickly restore it, preventing sustained outages from transient issues (like a branch brushing a line). But in wildfire conditions, the same device can create danger: multiple reclose attempts on a line fault can shower sparks onto dry ground. Big utilities have learned to adjust protection settings during fire season. For example, many now use “fast trip” or one-shot settings in high fire-risk periods, meaning the recloser (or breaker) will cut power instantaneously at the first sign of a fault and not attempt to re-energize until a crew checks the line. SCE began using such fast-trip settings in 2018 and saw a 54% reduction in wildfire ignitions on circuits with fast-trip enabled versus those without. In the same vein, utilities often disable automatic reclosing entirely on days of Red Flag Warnings or extreme weather. These measures sacrifice some reliability in favor of safety––a tradeoff that is justified when conditions could turn a broken line into a major wildfire.
Smaller utilities can:
The road to wildfire resilience is not without obstacles for small utilities, but those challenges can be overcome with ingenuity, collaboration, and determination. Every step–– no matter how incremental––counts. Replacing one old fuse, trimming one hazardous tree, or disabling one recloser on a dry, windy day might well prevent the next devastating fire. For the member-owners and communities served by co-ops and public power, these efforts are about more than protecting electrical assets; they are about protecting lives, property, and the very fabric of rural and small-town life from wildfire devastation.
We're here to help.
When you partner with EPE, you get an experienced team dedicated to providing you with tailored solutions and expert guidance.
Please fill out the form to the right, and a member of our team will be in touch.