From pruning trees to equipment upgrades, Washington State’s Chelan PUD is investing in several projects to ensure the steady, safe delivery of electricity during fire season, it said on April 24.
Chad Rissman, Chelan PUD’s director of distribution asset management, said the projects are prioritized based on their benefits across several goals, including:
• Reducing wildfire risk
• Building capacity for growth
• Expanding broadband internet access
• Replacing aging equipment
• Improving reliability
“The projects that make it into our work plan are projects that are going to have benefits associated with several of these goals,” Rissman said. “The more goals they cover, we’re trying to advance those and get those staffed and funded.”
The PUD provided the following summary of these projects, including several in Chelan County’s most fire-prone areas:
Vegetation Management
Pruning trees is the utility’s first line of defense in protecting reliability and preventing fires. Five years ago, Chelan PUD adopted a more aggressive pruning and inspection cycle that more than doubled the scope of work done to keep trees and shrubs a safe distance away from powerlines.
Utility Vegetation Manager Bill Sanborn oversees three utility foresters and 4-6 tree crews that work year-round, county-wide. Last year, Chelan PUD implemented new software and field tablets to track the work plan and log inspection status in real-time using GIS mapping.
Equipment upgrades
About 31 customers in downtown Leavenworth will experience an overnight outage in the coming weeks while crews replace aging electrical equipment in an underground utility vault. The outage will be coordinated with affected business and residents prior to the work.
The utility is also improving and building new substations. Crews replaced a transformer at the Plain Substation last year, and improvements at Coles Corner Switchyard are slated to begin in 2027. Bavarian substation at North Road and Chumstick Highway is in the permitting process. Construction is scheduled to begin next year.
Automation and innovation
A few years ago, Chelan PUD increased the sensitivity of the electrical grid in areas of high fire danger during fire season. The change reduced fire risk, but increased outage frequency. The utility recently installed new equipment that can switch to more sensitive settings on days when wildfire risk is higher. On mild days, the electrical grid will remain under typical settings for better reliability.
Sectionalizing
Through 2026, the utility is revamping the electrical grid to split large areas into smaller sections to reduce the number homes impacted when an outage occurs.
Non-emitting fuses
Chelan PUD has replaced some spark-emitting equipment, and has plans to ramp up that effort over the next two years, starting in areas with the highest fire danger. In areas where expulsion fuses are still used, crews will clear a 10-foot area around power poles.
Underground conversion
About two-thirds of Chelan PUD’s neighborhood-level utility lines are already underground.
The utility has identified several fire-prone areas where it makes sense to convert the existing overhead system to underground to improve reliability, replace aging overhead lines, and reduce fire risk.
Chelan PUD buried about a mile of overhead line in the Idlewild neighborhood last year. A 1.2-mile conversion is underway along lower River Road in Plain.
