an obvious example of the benefits from this technology is wildfire prevention high winds can cause electric lines to contact causing arcing on the line and damaging it but not causing a complete outage the sparks from these faults have been known to start wildfires especially during dry conditions and often without the knowledge of utility personnel repeated contact can burn the line down dfa has also helped utilities detect and locate tree branches making contact with power lines and causing faults which can start fires directly or break a line and cause it to fall to the ground an example of this situation was the devastating fire of 2011 in bastrop texas where a true worst-case scenario unfolded when high winds and severe drought conditions caused the most damaging wildfire in texas history many wildfires in the western united states last year were also linked to electric faults russell explained that awareness of adverse events and conditions even before they cause a failure enables utility companies to take preventive action by performing repairs or condition-based maintenance the dfa technology is a result of more than 15 years of continuous research collaboration resulting in the only system of its kind a practical benefit of using dfa is the ability to detect and repair arcing and misoperating devices that often cause wildfires said russell in a four-year study just completed at texas a&m it has been proven that many fires can be prevented with this technology whether preventing wildfires or dangerous power lines on the ground dfa is the new tool that improves reliability and safety industry tested this technology is not just lab tested it is field proven as well robert peterson director of control center and emergency preparedness at pedernales electric cooperative the nations largest distribution electric cooperative said dfa has been invaluable in providing information that is not available any other way dfa has enabled us to identify potential issues like trees on lines failing clamps failing arrestors etc and resolve those issues before they create power interruptions he said in one case we were able to pinpoint the location of a branch on an overhead line that could have become an ignition source for wildfire in a rural subdivision we have also used the monitors to provide information allowing us to proactively address issues with capacitor switches in order to keep our power factor within regulatory prescribed limits overall the technology has proven itself to the extent that our plans now include expanding their use to the rest of our distribution system dr comfort manyame senior manager of research and technical strategy and robert taylor engineering specialist at mid-south synergy were also complimentary of the technology taylor said it makes me wonder what we did before dfa while manyame said they are hoping to expand their use of dfa in the coming years thomas ellis manager of engineering at bluebonnet electric cooperative said that their control center operators have used dfa information to accurately determine the cause and location of multiple faults including a fault that affected just one single customer on a stretch of circuit with more than 160 miles of overhead line we would have been unaware of this issue until a member reported an outage which did not happen for a full hour ellis said a crew was already en route with the information that the likely cause was a failed arrester before we even got the call from the affected location according to ellis information provided by dfa allows us to better identify intermittent faults incipient failures and capacitor malfunctions increased prefailure awareness facilitates proactive equipment repair to mitigate catastrophic failures and avoid sustained outages he added that dfa technology not only improves customer satisfaction but also improves worker safety thanks to diagnostic capability of the system leading to more efficient troubleshooting that kind of industry feedback makes all of the efforts by dfa creators worth it according to benner an engineer co-inventor and associate research professor in the electrical and computer engineering department we have spent 20 years developing dfa benner said i get great personal satisfaction when i see utility companies using it on a day-to-day basis to improve their operations and the quality of service they provide to their customers this research is funded by the texas a&m engineering experiment station and the texas wildfire mitigation project which was initially established by the texas state legislature in 2013 with the support of the texas a&m forest service