Study: U.S. Utility Wildfire Preparedness Inadequate
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Well, this is certainly not something I want to hear. According to a recent whitepaper from Stanford, U.S. utilities are doing a poor job of wildfire preparedness. The paper concludes that many electric utilities haven’t even developed the most basic wildfire prevention and mitigation measures.
This is truly a sad state of affairs, but we need to talk about it because if your utility falls into the ‘inadequate’ category, it’s not too late to change the narrative…but action must be taken now.
How U.S. Utility Wildfire Preparation is Falling Short
The research paper – which focuses only on U.S. investor-owned utilities (IOUs) – said that many utilities operating in the western states have made progress with regard to wildfire preparation, but not all of them. Additionally, electric utilities operating in vulnerable areas beyond the western states remain woefully underprepared, opening themselves up to wildfire lawsuits.
The Stanford whitepaper compiled information and data from publicly available sources and analyzed it via a wildfire hazard model developed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The results placed utilities into tiers based on their level of wildfire preparedness.
Tier-1 consists of utilities that have developed and deployed comprehensive wildfire mitigation plans and protocols as well as a clearly defined Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) framework, and have deployed advanced technical tactics like fast-trip wires that can shut off immediately when compromised. This tier is dominated by utilities in California, Oregon, and Utah.
Tier-2 utilities are those that have wildfire mitigation and PSPS plans, but they are incomplete or only partially implemented. Tier-3 utilities do not have a wildfire mitigation or PSPS plan in place. According to the paper, many utilities in the Southeast, Gulf Coast, and Upper Midwest fall into the tier-3 category.
The disparities across various states are at least partially due to different state-level regulatory policies and barriers, according to the report.
The bottom line is that this looks like a legitimate problem for many U.S. utilities, and I implore you to check out the Stanford whitepaper to see where your utility falls. Simply put, wildfire preparation is critical and must be taken seriously.
