Creating Wildfire Resilience

Through Preparedness and

Situational AwarenessWildfire Impact On Transmission

Darrell Moore, Reliability Analyst

July 15, 2014

RELIABILITY | ACCOUNTABILITY2

• NERC: Promote Information Sharing and Situational Awareness throughout the entire ERO, with the objective of creating more resilience to Wildfire threats across all Interconnections.

• WECC: San Diego Fires – Situational Awareness

• SDG&E: Identifying Risk, Understanding Risk, Risk Mitigation and Building Resilience to Wildfire Threats.

• All: Lessons Learned

Agenda

RELIABILITY | ACCOUNTABILITY3

• ERO Darrell Moore, NERC Reliability Analyst

o Darrell.moore@nerc.net

Steven Ashbaker, WECC Director of Operations Performance Analysis

o ashbaker@wecc.biz

• Industry David Geier, SDG&E Vice President, Electric Transmission & System

Engineering

o DGeier@semprautilities.com

Jonathan Woldemariam, SDG&E Director Electric Transmission & Distribution Engineering

o JWoldemariam@semprautilities.com

Presenters

Steve AshbakerDirector, Operations Performance Analysis

San Diego Fires - Situational Awareness

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• California has seen 25-50% of normal

rain fall the past year

• Third consecutive year of below normal

precipitation

• Subsequently, early start to California fire

season

Severe Drought/ Early Fire Season

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• WECC SA received timely and detailed

updates on fire status

• A total of 9 fires of various degrees of threat to

the BES were reported over a 5 day period

• Two “restricted maintenance” days were

declared by the CISO

• One EEA-2 was declared

• WECC SA provided 10 updates to NERC

Situation Awareness

© 2012 San Diego Gas & Electric Company. All copyright and trademark rights reserved.

Creating Wildfire Resilience

through PreparednessPresented to NERCJuly 2014

Dave Geier

San Diego Gas & Electric

VP – Electric Transmission & System Engineering

DGeier@semprautilities.com

7

SDG&E Transmission System Overview

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SONGS no longer in-service (was2150 MW, 20% Owned by SDG&E)

Palomar566 MW

IPP Owned

SDG&E Owned

Otay Mesa603 MW

IV renewables 900 MW

• Service Area – 4,100 square miles

• 1.4 million Electric Meters

• Total Local Generation 3090MW

• Maximum Import Limits 3350MW

• 1,951 Circuit Miles of Transmission

• 24 Transmission Substations

• 109 Transmission/Distribution Substations

Identifying Risk: Increased Wildfire Activity

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The map below shows portions of San Diego County that have

burned since 2000, including the Cedar Fire and all major 2007 fires.

2003 (Cedar Fire)

• Acres Burned: 280,278

• Structures Destroyed: 2,820

• Structures Damaged: 63

• Vehicles Destroyed: 148

• Deaths: 14

• Injuries: 104

2007 (All Major Fires)

• Acres Burned: 368,566

• Structures Destroyed: 2,665

• Structures Damaged: 117

• Vehicles Destroyed: 239

• Deaths: 7

• Injuries: 127

(For the purposes of this slide/presentation,

structures refer to overhead utility structures)

Understanding Risk: Drought Enhancing 2014 Wildfire Potential

LocationRainfall

(thru Apr 14)

Normal

(thru Apr 14)Percent of Normal

Laguna Beach 3.88” 13.81” 28% of Normal

Oceanside 4.20” 13.58” 31% of Normal

Lindbergh Field 5.06” 10.31” 49% of Normal

Ramona 7.85” 16.00” 49% of Normal

Campo 6.95” 15.66” 44% of Normal

• Rainfall over the last year has been 25%-50% of normal.

• This is our third consecutive year of below normal rainfall.

CA Drought Monitor

• 100% of CA in Severe Drought

• 76% of CA in Extreme Drought

(Including much of San Diego County)

Early Season Wildfire Activity

• May 13-16 Fire

Complex

• Coastal San Diego

County

• 8 wildfires were

greater than 100 acres

• Over 13,000

customers affected

• Over 40 homes

destroyed

• One Fatality

• Estimated $60 Million

Damage

• 26,000 Total acres

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Risk Mitigation: Establishing Resilience to Wildfire

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Air Support Contract Contracted Fire Fighters

Wood to Steel (2,220T & 1,750D)

Mobile Fire Trailers

Updated Operational Procedures

Meteorologists and Fire Coordinators Mobile Command Centers

• Operational changes to turn-off reclosing

• Mobilizing crews to pre-determined locations

• De-energize for safety when necessary

• Staging of washing rigs and fire crews to pre-

determined locations

• Prior to and throughout the event, SDG&E

provides situational awareness and forecasts to

CAISO

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Risk Mitigation:

Proactive Operational and Developmental Measures

• Coordinate with neighboring utilities for

potential support

• Take operational actions as needed to

optimize power flows in coordination with the

CAISO.

• For major events, the CAISO will declare a

system emergency where they may suspend

code of conduct and allow out of market sales

to stabilize system

• SDG&E Weather Station Network: largest

utility weather network in the world delivering

unsurpassed real-time decision support

• State-of-the-Art Forecasting System: Provides superior

understanding of weather and vegetation moisture

supporting proactive emergency operations

• Collaborations with key stakeholders in the

local fire community increasing data sharing

• Mountain top camera network allows for real

time monitoring of hazardous conditions

providing updated intelligence

• Click here to play video

Building Resilience: Situational Awareness Enhancements through Community Collaborations and Big Data

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The Fire Potential Index is a planning and

decision support tool designed to reduce the

risk of a wildfire while improving efficiency

and reliability

• Incorporates weather, live fuel moisture, dead

fuel moisture, and greenness of the annual

grasses.

• Calculated for 8 sub-sets of the SDG&E

Service Territory

• Used to inform operational decisions,

work restrictions, resource allocation

Building Resilience: Developing Operational Tools

Fire Potential Index (FPI)

Slide 15Privileged & Confidential, Prepared at the Direction of Counsel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

FPI

Cedar FireWitch Fire

Angel Fire

Pines Fire

Border

Fire

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Sierra Fire

Building Resilience: Developing Operational Tools Fire Potential Index (FPI)

Our Mission: Develop a tool to mitigate risks associated with

extreme fire potential during Santa Ana Winds.

Our Vision: To provide a

decision support tool to fire

agencies and the general

public to increase public

safety and overall

preparedness.

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Building Resilience: Developing Operational Tools

Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index (SAWTI)

• SDG&E Vegetation

Management

maintains a

comprehensive

database of over

455,000 trees that

could impact our

system.

• Includes tree location,

species, growth rates

and pruning history

• This program has

resulted in drastic

decreases in tree-

related outages on

the system.

Building Resilience: Vegetation Management Program

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Comprehensive Program to Reduce Fire Risk and

Improve Mitigation:

– Extensive engineering changes (more stringent design

criteria, use of fire-resistant materials, use of state-of-

the-art equipment)

– Expanded QA/QC inspection and repair program

– Escalating operational changes coincident with

conditions

– Weather monitoring and forecasting

– Aggressive vegetation management program

– Far reaching community outreach and involvement

Lessons Learned

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Dave Geier

San Diego Gas & Electric

VP – Electric Transmission & System Engineering

DGeier@semprautilities.com

Thank You

Questions?

Creating Wildfire Resilience through Preparedness

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