Eaton unveils a groundbreaking AI-powered innovation to detect and mitigate high-impedance powerline faults that can ignite wildfires.
The new HiZ Protect technology accurately identifies and isolates faults, preventing wildfires without resorting to grid shutdowns.
Incorporating integrated sensors, machine learning, and edge-based implementation, Eaton’s solution achieves over 90% accuracy in lab tests.
Intelligent power management company Eaton has announced a groundbreaking innovation that addresses a long-standing challenge for electric utilities: how to quickly detect and mitigate high-impedance (HiZ) powerline faults that can ignite wildfires.
Avoiding fires without grid shutdowns: Existing grid protection technologies struggle to accurately prevent or identify HiZ faults, prompting utilities to resort to public safety power shutoffs during high-risk conditions. Eaton’s new HiZ Protect technology will help prevent wildfires by automatically and accurately identifying and isolating these powerline faults.
New approach to an old problem: HiZ faults, often caused by fallen trees or damaged insulators, are historically difficult to detect due to their low fault current levels and unique characteristics. Eaton’s approach to identifying and mitigating high-impedance faults incorporates three novel elements: integrated sensors, machine learning, and edge-based implementation.
Under lab-simulated conditions and using real-world grid data from multiple utilities, the Eaton technology detected and de-energized HiZ faults with greater than 90% accuracy. Pilot projects with multiple North American utilities are underway to further refine the technology, which is expected to be first available in Eaton’s Form 7 recloser controls.
Collaborative effort: The technology was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers research and development arm, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and several North American utility companies.
Protecting people and property: “It is critically important to be able to identify fault situations and take action to de-energize impacted power lines and curtail risk of wildfire to protect people and property, including military and utility systems,” said Nathan Peterson, electrical engineer at the ERDC Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. “We believe Eaton’s research, development and commercialization of high impedance fault detection technology offers immense opportunity to fortify the grid by quickly and reliably delivering the data needed to improve wildfire detection and mitigation at the grid edge.”
