Wildfire Alarm 'Eavesdrops' On Power Grid In Calif. Pilot Project

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — Southern California Edison has invested billions of dollars in its Wildfire Mitigation Plan, adding new technologies to their arsenal to protect against fire.

In October, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, Irvine, Mission Viejo, and unincorporated south county residents were forced into evacuations due to the raging wildfire sparked by gusting Santa Ana winds. Southern California Edison shut down portions of the grid, turning off power for thousands. Two firefighters in that Silverado blaze suffered critical burns in the fire. SoCal Edison reported a possible equipment issue was suspected of sparking the blaze that evacuated thousands and left burn scars across inland Orange County's wildland area.

Read: SoCal Edison Reports Possible Cause Of Silverado Fire

Across the state in 2020, over 4 million acres of California burned due to wildfire. This new Early Fault Detection goes way beyond those measures, officials say.

"The latest project is a pilot technology," a spokesperson says. "These high-tech devices are installed on power poles, and they listen in on the electrical noise coursing through power lines."

The devices are not just listening for anything. They are geared to focus on specific sounds Edison calls "rogue acoustics." Those sounds are the equivalent of listening for a specific bird call, according to Stephen Augustine, in a report from Energized, Edison's online magazine.

"The way EFD detects problems is like bird-watchers listening to the various songs that different species of birds sing," he said. "In a similar way, EFD sensors are able to distinguish between different types of problems by the unique noises they make."

Edison says their EFD devices are installed up to three miles apart or five miles apart for high-voltage transmission lines "bookending" the equipment in between.

To date, about 30 of the EFD units are in place. Already, they are seeing results. The majority of the units thus far are in Ojai and near Temecula, an Edison spokesperson tells Patch.

"We have already found damaged conductors that may have led to downed power lines or could have led to a possible ignition,” said Augustine. “Some equipment that may have failed could have led to an outage for customers or led to very hazardous conditions. It's very gratifying to see the direct results and to see the effectiveness of the technology so early on.”

There are still more engineering tools to be piloted, according to Edison, as the wildfire threat remains.

"(Wildfire) threatens the life and property of the communities we serve," Agustine says. "It is certainly something we have to take as a serious responsibility and an extension of the focus we have always had on the public.