2024

When animals (such as birds, squirrels, raccoons, possums, bats, rats, snakes and more) come into contact with overhead lines and substations, this can cause localized fires and even uncontrolled wildfires on the ground below. This represents an increasingly common problem for electric utilities and industrial power-distribution systems all over the world. Such problems are particularly common in older networks, which were not designed to protect against wildlife-related outages or fires. Up to 25% of fires associated with power-distribution systems are preventable with the appropriate engineering controls, and are most commonly caused by the following:
- Wildlife-related activities, including ignition of nesting materials and other animal- related debris, pole-top fires from electrocuted birds and animals falling to the ground, igniting dry vegetation below.
- Flashover of pollution (such as bird guano and airborne environmental pollutants) that has built up on insulated components. Such contaminants can create a conductive path for the current to flow through, increasing the risk of arcing, tracking and flashover.
- Vegetation-induced fires resulting from live, bare conductors touching dry vegetation.
- Conductor clashing, where two adjacent conductors come into contact with each other, generating sparks, conductor damage and traveling arcs.
Poorly designed insulation material is a less well-known, but equally important fire risk. In order to be fit for purpose, a high quality insulation material formulation should have the following characteristics:
- Perform reliably for 40+ years without deterioration in performance.
- Minimize the risk of fire ignition associated with normal and abnormal utility environments.
No pure polymers will work in a high voltage environment. All materials need a stabilizer package to deliver:
- UV longevity.
- Thermal endurance.
- Prevention of tracking and erosion on new and aged materials.
- Prevention of fire ignition due to power arcs and surface leakage currents from new
and aged materials.