Aussie Farms, Farming, Fire Prevention

Aussie invention preventing bushfires

An Aussie invention that can predict power line faults is helping to prevent bushfires in North America, Europe and Australia

An early fault detection (EFD) system which was designed at RMIT University can predict power line faults and therefore help prevent bushfires.

RMIT University says the EFD system can be installed on single-wire earth return powerlines, of which there are about 200,000km across Australia currently.

The potentially life-saving technology can cover up to 5km of power lines with two units, and the university hopes to roll out the EFD system across all of these nationwide over the next 10 years.

“The EFD system can detect and locate faults on a powerline before they happen,” lead RMIT researcher professor and IND Technology CEO Alan Wong says.

“You can think of it like a smoke alarm for the power network. If you place enough sensors across the network, these sensors or alarm system will send out an alert when it thinks there’s a certain risk in the network.”

IND Technology has commercialised the innovation and is seeking funding from the federal government to assist with a nationwide rollout.

RMIT says the EFD system is included in several wildfire mitigation plans in the USA and Canada, where the Australian-made innovation is in high-demand.

Already 2,500 units of the EFD system have been installed worldwide, monitoring over 12,500 kilometres of powerlines and preventing more than 750 failures, RMIT says.

“According to a report by Adept Economics that we commissioned, every dollar spent on the EFD technology would generate $4.70 in expected benefits for Australia, in terms of the benefits from preventing bushfires and blackouts,” Wong says.

Wong says the patented sensing method processes radio frequency signals along powerlines using a data processing algorithm he says can identify the location of expected faults down to a 10m section of a powerline.

During a trial of the technology, RMIT says the EFD identified a failing conductor on a property in Victoria’s Porcupine Ridge, enabling a quick response to the problem.

“We always tell people that this technology can potentially save lives and prevent fires, I think in this example it captured all this essence. It has prevented a potentially catastrophic fire,” Wong says.

Send this to a friend