Advanced Data-Based Method for Wildfire Risk Assessment and Outage Analysis in Overhead Transmission Lines to Increase Reliability

Wildfires are one of the main contributors to the failure of overhead lines, presenting significant threats to power systems. The complex interaction between vegetation, topography, and ignition sources makes prediction challenging. Furthermore, current overhead transmission line standards do not establish design or operation and maintenance protocols to evaluate and address risks, impacts, and mitigation methods of wildfire. This study presents a novel methodology to assess the risk of exposure of overhead transmission lines (OHTLs) to wildfires and the associated risk of outage due to wildfire-induced flashovers. Applied to a 500 kV compact line in the Brazilian Savanna, the tested risk assessment presented positive performance compared with alternative techniques. Additionally, this study investigated 108 outages of the same OHTL caused by wildfire-induced flashovers, revealing potential inadequacies in the minimum vegetation clearance distance (MVCD) and vegetation management practice adopted.