I would like to know why grid operators turn portions off instead of installing devices to mitigate the fire risk when a fault occurs. “Rapid Earth Fault CLearance” devices (REFCL), also known as ground fault neutralizers, are a newish but commercially available technology that massively reduces current, and thus heating energy, delivered into a ground fault. In testing in Australia, a REFCL-protected line was intentionally dropped into dry plants without setting them on fire.

What gives? I doubt these devices are so expensive that they’re worse than the cost of “public safety power shutdowns” or of the billions of dollars that utilities are spending, and charging customers for, for undergrounding of lines and extra tree work.