Wildfire Challenges and Mitigation On Distribution Feeders: Practices and Experience At Xcel Energy

With increasing wildfire risks, it’s critical for Utilities to identify areas within their system with wildfire risks, existing installed equipment, as well as existing operating practices and performance. It is urgent that a plan be developed and deployed rapidly to reduce wildfire risk. In this paper, we will review the process Xcel Energy used to identify areas of high wildfire risk, standard practices and equipment deployed to reduce risk and protection and control philosophies modified and updated. We will share some examples with the updated standards for protection and control and the challenges encountered to provide the same level of reliability with higher sensitivity to wildfires