Proactive Wildfire Prevention
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Wildfire prevention is an ongoing concern among all electric utilities, especially those serving heavily forested regions. Northern Lights, Inc. (NLI) performs proactive fire prevention and takes all precautions to protect lines from the threat of wildfires.
NLI has numerous practices and plans to minimize potential fire impact. Fire mitigation encompasses a combination of vegetation management, operational practices, inspection and maintenance, design and construction, response and recovery, and situational awareness.
Vegetation management is a huge part of fire mitigation for NLI. A large portion of our annual budget is spent on tree trimming and removal. This is for reliability and wildfire prevention.
You likely have seen 1 of our contract crews out trimming trees around NLI power lines. They use several pieces of equipment, including chainsaws, mowers, mulchers, and an all-terrain tree trimmer.
NLI trims 200 to 250 miles of rights-of-way annually. As for tree-related outages, many are caused during the snow season when trees can become loaded with snow or ice and lean or fall into overhead power lines. A strong wind at any time of year can also cause major issues with trees.
Most of NLI’s distribution power lines are 30 to 45 feet above ground, and easements are typically 40 feet wide. Many of the softwood species in our area, such as pine, grow more than 100 feet tall. If you do the math, you can see there’s a good chance that if a tree falls into NLI’s right-of-way, it will fall on a power line.
When given permission by a landowner, NLI will remove hazardous trees outside our easement that pose a threat to power lines. Hazard trees are dead, leaning, or damaged—in other words, trees that need a little bit of extra force to fall over.
If you have a concern about a tree near a power line on your property, please report it using the “Request Tree Clearing” form on our website or call the main office during business hours at (208) 263-5141.
As for fire concerns, a branch could fall on a power line, create an arcing flame, and start a fire. This is what we aim to prevent with tree trimming. Another way to minimize the impact of a potential arcing flame is through our system protection devices. If the line can be deenergized quickly by blowing a fuse or opening a recloser, we may be able to reduce the size and duration of an arc.
Our generation and transmission service provider, the Bonneville Power Administration, has its own fire mitigation plan. We rely on BPA to deliver power to NLI.
If you see a questionable tree or branch hanging over a power line or something that looks off with 1 of our poles or lines, please call and let us know so 1 of our lineworkers can take a look. It may prevent a fire.
Northern Lights Engineering and Operations Manager Kristin Burge is an electrical engineer and has worked in the electric utility industry for most of her career.
