Front Range Electric Cooperative · Energy & utilities
Wildfire-season fuel load mapping across 9,100 km of line
A cooperative in wildfire country needed to know where its network crossed the highest fuel loads before the season, not after an ignition.
The challenge
Front Range serves a service territory that has burned three times in a decade. Vegetation clearance was managed to standard, but standard clearance says nothing about the fuel load surrounding a span.
What we did
GRIDSCAN for clearance and structure condition, plus ORBIS fuel-load and fuel-moisture mapping refreshed fortnightly through the season. Spans are ranked by combined clearance risk and surrounding fuel load.
Results
- Pre-season inspection effort concentrated on the highest combined-risk 8% of spans
- Fuel moisture refreshed fortnightly through the fire season
- Post-event damage assessment delivered within 6 hours of first clear acquisition
Clearance compliance and wildfire risk are not the same question. We were only answering one of them.
VP Operations, Front Range Electric Cooperative