Wildfire Mitigation
Minnesota Power understands the risk of wildfires presented by the electric grid and conducts preventative maintenance on its equipment and power lines to reduce that risk. We also have adopted operational changes, elevating fire danger as a major factor when making decisions and equipping our line trucks with firefighting equipment.
The preventative maintenance includes:- Inspecting power poles and replacing aging poles early in the year before fire season.
- Aerial inspections of transmission lines, and deeper inspections as necessary.
- Frequent inspections of substations, including infrared scans, and regular maintenance.
- Regular vegetation management and maintenance along power lines to reduce the risk from trees.
- An app-based tool for reporting problems in the field.
- An underground-first strategy to move power lines underground when possible.
- An underground modernization project to strategically move power lines underground in fire-prone areas.
- Visually inspecting power lines before re-energizing them after outages to reduce the risk of fire.
- Real-time tracking of fire danger updates from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and fire weather information from the National Weather Service to help guide decisions on the timing and location of work.
- Equipping line trucks with water backpacks and fire swatters to fight fires.
- Sending alerts to field crews during high fire danger or red flag warnings, and adjusting operations as needed to reduce wildfire risk.
