SC Edison Explains Exactly Why It Needed All Those Chopper Overflights
Written by 991KBU on July 28, 2020
Southern California Edison has been using helicopters to inspect its powerlines over Malibu and in many cases has really angered Malibu residents with the low-flying and hovering helicopters.
Documents filed by the utility with the California Public Utilities Commission this week explain why.
In recent years … SCE says it has experienced a number of splice failures.
Deteriorated connection points on electrical lines can cause
localized hot spots that over time can lead to failures if left unmitigated.
These conditions are often not visible to the human eye during visual inspections.
The helicopters have infrared and corona cameras …. they can actually see electronic fields emanating from power lines.
SCE says this improved capability gives it better ability to identify the causes of
faults.
The faults can cause fires.
And it may have been a fault like this … a failing connector … that caused power lines to spark and cause the Woolsey Fire.
