Wildfires as Increasing Threat to Overhead Lines:

Experience in Italy
Michele de Nigris
This is a true story
• Thailand :
• Khao Laem Mount in Nakhon Nayok
province – North of Bangkok – 20 – 29
March 2023
• 8400 ha burned – fortunately no
casualties
• Major impact from air pollution - 2 million
people to hospitals with respiratory
illnesses since the beginning of the year.

• Canada :
• 6497 forest fires in 2023; >800 still active
in October
• 184000 km2 affected
• 220000 persons evacuated
• CO2 emissions: 590 MTons > 1,5 times
Italy for 1 year
• Italy :
• 693 forest fires (July – August 2023)
• 687 km2
• Sicily (July) – Calabria (August) 2
 Aim of the presentation

ADDRESS WILDFIRES AS AN
INCREASING THREAT FOR THE
POWER SYSTEM: IMPLICATIONS FOR
RELIABILITY OF SERVICE AND SAFETY
OF OPERATING PERSONNEL

• Recent fire statistics (Italy);

• Definition of metrics;
• Procedures adopted in the vicinity Immagine
of power lines;
• Evaluation and reduction of risks
for firefighters;
• Open points and research
pathways.

3
Case study

• 19-29 July 2022 – North-East Italy;

• 4 extended fire sources;
• 3700 ha of land burned;
• 7 sources of fire impacting the power system;
• Trieste affected by blackout covering 100% of
urban area and related infrastructure for
several hours.

• 1 line 380 kV + 3 lines 220 kV + 3 lines 132

kV affected;
• Restoration: extensive reconfiguration
including intervention of the Transmission
and Distribution System Operators in
Slovenia.

4
 Wildfire situation in Italy - 2022

• 68,500 hectares (ha);

• Surface burnt higher than average value in the last

10 years;

• Fire events occurred mainly in the summer season,

both in terms of number and extension;

• Over 20% consisted of forest: oaks, beech trees,

holm oaks, Mediterranean maquis, and pine forests ;

• More than 50% of the national burnt territory and

forests was in Sicily;
• Calabria, Lazio, Campania, Tuscany, Piemonte and
Friuli-Venezia-Giulia;

• Compared to 2021, area affected by fires decreased

in Central and Southern regions, and increased in
Northern regions.

5
 Indexes and perspectives

• Fire Weather Index (FWI):

• weather variables to quantify fire related danger:
Temperature, humidity, wind, and cumulative
precipitation;
• 6 components: fuel moisture (3) + rate of spread
(2) + fire intensity (1) affected by weather
conditions
• FWI <5.2 “very low” - to FWI > 50 “extreme”
• FWI adequate to the Italian situation

• Scenario: RCP8.5
• Period 2021-2050 wrt 1971-2000
(historical period);
• Increase in the number of days with FWI
> 15
• Summer: +20%
• Autumn: +50%
6
 Impact on the power system
450
400
350
• Unplanned line outages become more frequent; 300
• Department of Civil Protection requires deactivation 250
(and grounding) of HV lines located at less than 500 200

meters from the fire front when subjected to launch of 150

100
fluids from aircrafts or helicopters.
50
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

• 25% to 45% of total fire events cause line or system

de-energization;
• This occurrence depends on fire event dynamics but
also on the line configuration;
• In 2022:
• Sicily most affected by fire + deactivations
• Calabria, Campania, Lazio and Friuli;
• Tuscany + Piedmont affected by fire but with
lower level of lines de-energization.
7
 Procedures adopted by the TSO

• SOUP-Permanent Unified Operations Room

• Regional Operational Center of Civil Protection
• Forest Protection officers; Fire Brigade
• Law enforcement forces (CC, PS, GdF).

Immagine

Evaluation of impacts of the line de activation in

terms of disconnection of users or network
operation under critical situations.

• In case of aerial firefighting and line within

500m of fire front;
• In case firemen need to operate inside the
“vinity zone”.
8
 The issues

Air gap performance under fire conditions

Temperature (density) Particles in smoke Presence of flame

Safety aspects for firefighters

Working distances using Working distances during
Approach distances
ground equipment aerial interventions

Performance of insulators during firefighting

Effect of foam and
Drop of fluid (water) Direct effect of fire
retardants
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 Air gap performance under fire conditions

• Higher temperatures increase conductor sag;

• Compensation effect between conductor elongation
and stringing coefficient;
• Minimum distance to ground under high temperature
well beyond dielectric withstand margins (even in
presence of trees in the right of way).

• The infrared radiation from fire heats up air inside the gap;
• Hot air has a lower density (and lower specific dielectric
withstand capability);
• Large scale tests have demonstrated that decay in
performances, in absence of flames bridging the gap, is
not sufficient to justify significant loss of performances.

10
 Air gap performance under fire conditions

• The presence of soot and ashes in the smoke contributes

to the diminished performances of the air gap;
• Effect is significant only when particles have big and
elongated dimensions and are highly conductive;
• Such conditions are not typical in burning vegetation
present in Italy.

Immagine

• High conductivity of flame rises the ground

potential towards the top of the fire mass at
the tip of the fire tongues, with their sharp
edges where the electric field is very
concentrated.
• The presence of ions inside the body of the
flame spreads charged particles in the gap,
thus fostering the incipient flashover.

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 Safety for firefighters – approach distances

• DL: Only the personnel having a very specific training is

allowed to operate; requires specific protection, tools,
methods;
• DV: Electrical work can be carried out only by skilled and
authorized personnel. Other persons present supervised by
skilled specialists;
• DA9: Non-electrical work (e.g. firefighting) can be carried out,
provided that environmental conditions are not far from
normal. Non specialist personnel can work under supervision
of skilled personnel;
• Outside the DA9: considered safe for general personnel
without any specific supervision.

System voltage DL: Live working DV: Vicinity zone DA9: Non-electric
[kV] zone [m] [m] work zone [m]
380 2,5 4,0 7,0
220 1,6 3,0 7,0
150 1,2 3,0 7,0
132 1,1 3,0 5,0 12
 Step voltage

The step voltage is the only “electrical” threat for operators

combating the fire with manual instruments (axes, hammers,
hooks, bars etc.) without hoses nozzles and breaches.

Immagine

System voltage [kV] Safety distance – no water

spray
380 26
220 14
132 9

13
 Working with fire extinguishing hoses

• In addition to step voltage, flow of leakage current

along the water stream must be considered.
• Variables to be considered:
• the distance at which the flow touches the ground;
• the resistivity of the flow stream;
• the size of the nozzle (surface of the flow stream).

• Safety distances smaller than for the step voltage only;

• Exception: larger spray nozzle (45 mm – long flow
streams).

SAFETY DISTANCE OF 26 METERS CAN BE OBSERVED

IN CASE THE VOLTAGE LEVEL IS NOT KNOWN BY THE
OPERATING PERSONNEL, WHEN USING THE SMALLER
SPRAY NOZZLES (i.e. 2,5 mm AND 3,5 mm) NOT
DIRECTED TOWARDS CONDUCTORS.
14
 Airborne interventions & open points

FLUID DROP CHARACTERISTICS:

• Up to 6000l of fluid discharged on the line in < 5 sec
• Spray thrown on gap at 100mph and 30m height
• Different coverage depending on drop option –
ground coverage 0,4-2 l/m2
• Conductivity from tap water (100 μS/cm) to sea water
(500 μS/cm) - Higher conductivities from foams and
retardants.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ISSUES:

• Impact of heavy fluid flows on conductor-plane gap – effect of fluid drops dimensions (water clouds characteristics)
• Effect of fluid conductivity (from tap water to retardants) and density on gap performances
• Impact of fluid drop on the line insulators hit by the conductive mix of salt water and foam or retardant

TEST CAMPAIGN TO BE CARRIED OUT:

• Evolution of the dielectric tests to assess the performances under live line washing conditions, adapting the fluid
spray direction, resistivity, chemical composition, and flow rate.
• In the case of surface insulation, tests should consider the different chemical composition and the resulting ESDD
over the insulators’ surfaces.

15
 Operative remarks from the TSO viewpoint

Department of Civil Protection requires deactivation (and grounding) of HV lines located

at less than 500 meters from the fire front when subjected to launch of fluids from
aircrafts or helicopters to avoid any electrical risk to firefighting personnel

PERSONNEL SAFETY:
• FLYING PERSONNEL NOT EXPOSED TO ANY ELECTRICAL RISK;
• GROUND PERSONNEL PROTECTED FROM PHYSICAL RISK OF HEAVY FLUID DROP – Does not operate close to the line during fluid
dropout

SYSTEM MANAGEMENT:
• LINE DE-ACTIVATION MAY IMPACT NATIONAL POWER SYSTEM: NEEDS (IF NECESSARY) TO BE REDUCED AT THE MINIMUM;
• LINE GROUNDING MAY TAKE TOO LONG TO BE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE – Specialised personnel dispatched on evolving fire site

LINE GROUNDING IS NOT NECESSARY - LINE OPENING SHALL BE SUFFICIENT:

• LINE OPENING MAY NOT GUARANTEE ABSENCE OF VOLTAGE
• RESIDUAL VOLTAGE LINKED WITH CAPACITIVE AND INDUCTIVE COUPLING WITH ADJACENT LINES
• RESIDUAL VOLTAGE ON 380kV LINE ARE LIMITED TO 5-30kV PHASE-GROUND – Even under heavy parallelism conditions (120km)

16
 Concluding remarks

• Wildfires constitute an important threat for the power systems;

• Impact expected to increase (climate change);
• Need to increase resilience of networks to fire;
• Fire Weather Index (FWI) applicable in Italy;
• Need operative fire forecasting tool to support TSO.

• Multi-model approaches to be adopted:

• fine tune indexes;
• increase the spatial resolution of models;
• compute return times;
• evaluate impact of risk mitigation measures.

• Flashover/withstand characteristics of air gaps in presence of fire:

• hot combustion gases;
• soot particles;
• flame conductivity and the related electrical field distortion and
concentration.
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 Concluding remarks

TO BE DONE:
• Determination of gap behavior in presence of fluid flows characterized by:
• high conductivities (sea water, extinguishing foam, retardants);
• very high flows (conductive fluid drops from helicopters or air
tankers);
• Phase-to-ground insulation system comprising insulators.

RULE OF THUMB:
Maintaining >25 meters from the geometrical imprint of the overhead
transmission line over the ground can be kept as an initial reference,
provided no water flow is projected towards the line.

18
«This work has been partly financed by the Research Fund for
the Italian Electrical System in compliance with the Decree of
Minister of Economic Development April 16, 2018»

Authors: Michele de Nigris*, Elena Collino*, Paola Faggian*,

Francesca Viterbo*, Luciano Minto**, Francesco Pietrocola**,
Simone Talomo**, Chiara Vergine**
*RSE SpA – Italy; **Terna SpA - Italy

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