An Arizona electric utility is installing a series of wildland fire-detection cameras in a remote area of its transmission line corridor to allow it to identify sparked wildland fires and also monitor transmission equipment that was damaged by wind or storms.
Salt River Project (SRP), a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility and the largest electricity provider in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, serving approximately 1.1 million customers, also provides water to about half of the Valley’s residents, delivering more than 244 billion gallons of water (750,000 acre-feet) each year, and manages a 13,000-square-mile watershed that includes an extensive system of reservoirs, wells, canals, and irrigation laterals.
SRP is piloting a Smoke Detector Pilot Project that will act as a camera and smoke detector early-warning system for wildland fires that occur near the utility’s transmission line towers in the Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. The project, which is expected have an impact on wildland fire preparedness and protecting a portion of the Valley’s watershed, is the first of its kind in Arizona.
The smoke detectors and cameras, which have been used in CA and Europe, are SmokeD models, made by a manufacturer in Warsaw, Poland, says Floyd Hardin, SRP’s fire management officer. Besides detecting the initiation of wildland fires, the SmokeD units will capture physical changes on the utility’s 500-kilovolt (kV), transmission towers that transmit energy to the Valley from power plants located in eastern AZ.
About 120 miles of SRP’s high-voltage power lines are located on U.S Forest Service land located in the northeastern part of the state. SRP is setting up two test areas with 12 cameras to capture images of a portion of the 500-kV transmission towers every 10 minutes, Hardin points out. The solar-powered infrared cameras can work at night and capture images up to 10 miles out with a 360-degree view.
Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), the cameras can learn their surrounding environment, report changes, and provide alerts when identifying smoke from wildland fires or changes to structures, Hardin says. The cameras can also alert SRP to issues such as downed lines, downed towers, or damaged equipment.
“Today, if a fire impacts our lines, we may not know until we get an alert that something has interrupted the delivery of power,” Hardin observes. “Our crews could be up to 200 miles away and have no visuals to determine what is happening. With this tool, we have the potential to see images nearly in real time and can determine our next steps quickly and efficiently.”
Hardin says one section of smoke cameras will be on the north side of Route 260, northwest of Forest Lakes, while the other section of cameras will be located about eight miles south of Route 260 on Young Road. He adds that if this pilot program works, there could be eyes on the high-fire-risk area and SRP’s critical structures, 24/7/365.
“Power companies are forced to deal with multiple fire-related issues, and beyond dealing with wildland fires, it is not uncommon for a failure of a power line to lead to a fire,” says Artur Matuszczak, chief executive officer of SmokeD. “Thanks to our partnership with Salt River Project, we can prove that fire detectors can also be installed on utility structures. As an additional benefit, the company receives a tool that monitors their infrastructure.”
SRP crews are currently mounting the cameras at a test site in Phoenix’s East Valley, with the goal for the pilot program to be operational by late summer.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Ariz.-based journalist, the author of three novels and five non-fiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment editorial advisory board. He served 22 years with Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including the position of chief.
