New Studies for the Old Problem of Power Outage Caused by Trees — International Society of Arboriculture

New Studies for the Old Problem of Power Outage Caused by Trees (#30)

Pedro Castro 1
  1. Gerência de Gestão Ambiental, Cemig Distribuição, Belo Horizonte , Brasil

The trees located in the urban areas could be considered an element of life quality and as well as an important urban equipment. However, frequently there are no criteria to species selection to be planted in these areas, resulting in an environment full of conflicts between the vegetation and the urban utilities, which is also very important to the society. In addition to the damage to sidewalks and building, the trees located in the wrong place could lead to problems regarding pedestrian traffic and damage to the electrical system. The conflict of vegetation and the electrical system could cause power outages and offer high risk of accidents. Regarding to Minas Gerais State in Brazil, Cemig Distribuction is the Energy Company responsible of power distribution for 774 cities and because of the high frequency of power outages caused by trees all around the state, is was decided that a research should be taken to analyze more closely this kind of interaction. Since September 2012, Cemig D is developing the Research and Development Project named R & D428 that aims to identify tree species that has more interaction with the power lines and propose new native species to be planted. It was also conducted a bibliographic study that considered attributes defined by specialists. The study identified 12 potential native species and two of them were produced in a nursery which will be tested in urban areas. 

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