Jesse Rorabaugh has a tough time explaining to his kids what he does as an engineer for Southern California Edison. His wife suggested a Smokey Bear costume.

While that might not exactly explain what he does, his work is an important part of SCE's efforts to reduce the risk of wildfires.

Rorabaugh is helping develop and install equipment that could provide a major boost to the prevention of wildfires and improve public safety caused by downed power lines.

Combining power lines with a protective coating called covered conductor, and other SCE initiatives as a part of its Wildfire Mitigation Plan, there has been a 75%-80% reduction in the probability of catastrophic wildfires associated with the utility’s equipment since 2018.

“This is a significant improvement,” Rorabaugh said.

Officially, Rorabaugh is working on Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiters. In short, he is helping SCE prevent downed power lines from causing fires and public safety hazards.

The equipment detects and rapidly reduces the voltage on a downed power line to the point that what could have been a dangerous electrical arc can no longer spark a fire.

“At the first sign of trouble, it redirects voltage away from the impacted conductor,” Rorabaugh said.

Meanwhile, the equipment reroutes power, so customers do not have an immediate power outage.

“It can operate without blinking lights or customer turnoffs,” Rorabaugh said.

Previously, utilities could not always detect these downed lines and failures, but technology has helped electric power companies to analyze even the smallest of power anomalies. The technology has been used in Europe for years. SCE has improved on devices later developed by Australia after its deadly wildfires in 2009, though the technology at SCE is still in its infancy.

SCE has installed these devices on a circuit in the west end of the Antelope Valley near Gorman and in the areas of Acton and Phelan in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties.

By the end of 2023, SCE expects to have the equipment on three substations covering 847 miles of circuitry, of which 373 miles are in high fire risk areas.

“This technology is an example of SCE trying to get to the point that even when bad things happen, the power lines aren't releasing enough energy to cause ignitions,” Rorabaugh said.

For more information on SCE's wildfire mitigation efforts, visit edison.com/wildfiresafety.