Decision Support for Mitigating the Risk of Tree Induced Transmission Line Failure in Utility Rights-of-Way

作者：Poulos H M^*; Camp A E

来源：Environmental Management, 2010, 45(2): 217-226.

DOI：10.1007/s00267-009-9422-5

• Power line corridor
• Vegetation management
• Hazard tree
• Utility arboriculture
• Electrical outage prevention
• Decision support

Vegetation management is a critical component of rights-of-way (ROW) maintenance for preventing electrical outages and safety hazards resulting from tree contact with conductors during storms. Northeast Utility's (NU) transmission lines are a critical element of the nation's power grid; NU is therefore under scrutiny from federal agencies charged with protecting the electrical transmission infrastructure of the United States. We developed a decision support system to focus right-of-way maintenance and minimize the potential for a tree fall episode that disables transmission capacity across the state of Connecticut. We used field data on tree characteristics to develop a system for identifying hazard trees (HTs) in the field using limited equipment to manage Connecticut power line ROW. Results from this study indicated that the tree height-to-diameter ratio, total tree height, and live crown ratio were the key characteristics that differentiated potential risk trees (danger trees) from trees with a high probability of tree fall (HTs). Products from this research can be transferred to adaptive right-of-way management, and the methods we used have great potential for future application to other regions of the United States and elsewhere where tree failure can disrupt electrical power.

• 出版日期2010-2