Tree caused outages and relationship to stream and soil type

2020 Gregory Dahle, PhD, West Virginia University

We are concerned about the thousands of power outages caused by trees falling onto wires, poles and other power grid equipment. Trees are the leading cause of power outages on the East Coast, and 70-80% of these outages are caused by trees outside the power line right-of-way corridor. In order to help to reduce power outages, we are identifying factors that cause trees to uproot, break or otherwise fail. Some of the factors include proximity to water, soil type, species and slope. We are hoping to develop a predictive model to help utility companies plan where to site new lines, and a mechanism for prescriptive management to prevent outages where they are most likely to occur. Power outage are expensive, both in terms of lost revenue but also in the costs to fix them. If an accurate predictive model can be created, it will save money for consumers and improve power delivery.

The relevance to the project of the analysis would be to identify areas that have a) high incidences of tree failure and b) high measurement of industry standard indices such as SAIDI (sustained average interruption duration of incident) and SAIFI (sustained average interruption frequency incident) and to make a recommendation for either an increased focus on IVM (integrated vegetation management) activities, or, in extreme cases, to relocate lines to more appropriate locations.

Potentially, the impact on planning and siting of new lines, location of existing lines and a more science-based means of determining the prescription for integrated vegetation management, vs. the current system used which is little to no additional work outside of the existing right-of-way to an educated guess. Goals will also include pro-active management of trees adjacent to power line corridors to improve quality of life, loss of business from lack of power and ultimately improve the forest canopy by allowing healthy trees to exist for longer and with more resources once live hazard trees are identified and removed. A healthy urban/suburban forest canopy has a myriad of human health, water quality, air quality, economic and quality of life benefits, among others, and this research will encourage existing healthy trees that provide the most ecosystem services.

Findings:

Regarding the data collected during field investigation of tree caused outages. Our analysis identified correlations between the tree section (roots, trunk, branches) and the following variables: genus, tree health, defect type, slope, and tree height. We are currently preparing a peer-review manuscript that will report the specifics. Analysis found that the data collected in the field pertaining to soils type and moisture level were not as robust enough for analysis. We are currently using GIS tools to investigate the reliability of using data from the national Web Soil Survey to address correlations between soil and water and tree failures.

Year: 2020

Funding Duration: 3year

Grant Program: Utility Arborist Research Fund Grant

Grant Title: Tree caused outages and relationship to stream and soil type

Researcher: Dr. Gregory A. Dahle and Cindy Musick

Key words:

Publications:

Musick, CD and GA Dahle. 2023. Tree caused outage terminology for vegetation managers. Utility Arboris NEWSLINE 14,6: 28-30

Dahle GA. WVU Arboriculture & Urban Forestry Research Lab. AREA Newsletter July 2022.

Professional Presentations:

TREE Fund Webinar Presentation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0vklOa5xgs

TREE Fund Q&A – https://treefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Q-and-A-11.5.24-Dahle-Musick-Webinar-1.pdf

 

Musick, CD. Utility tree risk assessment. Appalachian Vegetation Management Association Conference. Stonewall Jackson WV. March 2023 (Invited speaker)

Musick, CD and GA Dahle. Tree caused outages and relationship to stream and soil type. Delivered to TREE Fund After Hours. December 2020 (Invited speaker)

Musick, CD. Technology, Satellite and Hazard Trees. MAC ISA Oct 2023 (Invited speaker)

Musick, CD. Satellite and Hazard Tree ID Distributech. 2023. (Invited panel speaker)

Musick, CD. EPRI and Satellite ID of trees. Distributech. 2022. (Invited speaker)

Musick, CD. Consistent Language and Standards for tree cause outage outage reporting. UAA Vegetation Managers Summit 2023. (Invited speaker)

Musick, CD. EPRI and Satellite ID of trees. UAA Texas Regional Meeting 2022 (Invited speaker)

 

For more information on this project, contact the researcher via TREE Fund at treefund@treefund.org.