By the end of this year, EDP Distribuição will invest around 16 million euros in inspection and intervention in the protection zones and fuel management bands along the electricity lines, in order to guarantee the improvement of service quality and the safety of the electricity networks. This is an increase of 26% compared to 2019, justified by the increase in the number of approved and revised Municipal Forest Fire Defense Plans, together with the increase in the cost of all vegetation-related tasks.
As the operator of an air network 179 thousand kilometres long, 28 thousand of which are installed in forest areas, EDP Distribuição is present throughout the continental territory. The infrastructures that make up the public service electricity networks are endowed with public utility and are part of the concessions granted to EDP Distribuição. At the different voltage levels, safety regulations stipulate that the Company has the duty to carry out maintenance and guarantee the maintenance of the electrical lines, based on a regular and methodical inspection, suitable for monitoring compliance with safety distances, within the protection zone.
Thus, whenever there are situations of non-compliance with the safety distances of electricity lines from the vegetation, there is a duty to warn, in order to ensure rapid action by owners, municipalities, infrastructure companies, civil protection and EDP Distribuição itself, in the event of imminent danger, to restore the safety conditions of people and property. For this purpose, the company has developed a feature in its App and website (edpdistribuicao.pt), which allows, in a very intuitive way, any citizen to report a situation of proximity of vegetation to the power lines.
In the legislation of defense of the forest against fires it is understood that the cutting and weeding of trees, as well as the cleaning and removal of vegetation, allow to reduce the effects of the passage of fires, protecting the electrical network passively, and isolating potential ignition sources. In this sense, under the National Forest Fire Fighting System, EDP Distribuição has the duty to set up fuel management strips next to the high and medium voltage power lines at strategic locations previously defined in the Municipal Forest Fire Fighting Plans, with the owner being obliged to allow access to the property.
