The Utility Vegetation Management Podcast
Utility Vegetation Management (UVM) is a rapidly growing multi-billion dollar a year industry employing tens of thousands of people. UVM is the largest operational expense in most electric utilities and frequently the largest driver of system reliability and outage management. In recent years, climate change, wildfires, storms and Public Safety Power Shutoffs have brought the industry into mainstream news. Several groups including government, regulators, utilities, contractors, industry and the public are now active stakeholders and contribute to the public debate. Despite high levels of concern and interest in the subject matter, communications on the topic have been restricted to traditional media outlets. The UVM Podcast is the first of its kind. It aims to directly insert itself in the public conversation as a 21st Century medium to discuss and address the challenges that face us all. The podcast is hosted by Stephen Cieslewicz, an internationally recognized expert in UVM, and Nick Ferguson, a Tech Sector leader specializing in Utility Vegetation Management.
The Utility Vegetation Management Podcast
00 | The UVM Podcast Introduction (Pilot)
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Steve Cieslewicz and Nick Ferguson
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An introduction to The Utility Vegetation Management Podcast. This pilot episode describes the three principal reasons we do this work:
- The first reason we manage trees near power lines has to do with preventing outages. In most places across North America, tree and powerline conflicts are the single largest cause of power outages on distribution systems. Trees, either growing into, or more often than not, falling into power lines are the main reason why our lights go out.
- The second reason for UVM has to do with fire mitigation. For those of you in fire prone states and provinces, tree and powerline conflicts have been a significant cause of devastating electric utility related wildfires in recent years, particularly out here in California. To illustrate that point, a staggering 65% of the total hectares, or acres, burned in California in 2019 were found to be caused by electric facilities.
- UVM is also focused on public and worker safety. When trees grow too close to overhead energized lines there is a risk that someone can get hurt. This type of exposure turns out to be one the largest causes of accidents and fatalities in the green industry
Our intent is to provide a forum for people involved in this industry to learn about issues that will have an effect on preventing tree and power line conflicts. We want to bring you informative interviews with industry professionals and also discuss topics of interest to anyone involved with this industry. We’ll be interviewing utilities, regulators, policy makers, tree contractors and technologists.