The term “unprecedented” is often used in the media to describe seemingly new wildfire impacts. Yet, we have seen numerous “unprecedented” wildfire events in the past five years stemming from asset-caused ignitions. For a risk manager at an electric utility, it’s crucial to recognize that the threat of catastrophic wildfires is pervasive and exists almost everywhere.
Technosylva’s Senior Data Scientist, Pavel Grechanuk, explains that the wildfire mitigation strategies of electric utilities demand more than a simple designation of risk levels. Electric utilities need a comprehensive, nuanced approach that recognizes the complexities of fuels, climate, and people. More importantly, by combining climatological analysis with operational risk modeling, electric utilities can forecast catastrophic events and take action ahead of time to minimize impacts.
5 Key Takeaways:
- Unprecedented Wildfires Are Increasingly Common: Climate change is making severe wildfires more frequent and unpredictable, even in previously low-risk areas.
- Comprehensive Risk Assessment is Essential: Utilities need to go beyond simple risk designations and consider factors like fuels, climate, and people to accurately assess their wildfire risk.
- Climatological Analysis and Operational Risk Modeling Are Crucial: Combining these two approaches helps utilities understand what is normal and what is coming in the near term, enabling better forecasting of unprecedented events.
- Advanced Fire Spread Modeling is Necessary: This technology can predict where a fire will go and its potential impacts, aiding in decision-making.
- Proactive Management is Key: By implementing a comprehensive modeling framework, utilities can better prepare for and respond to severe weather events, even those that were previously considered unprecedented.
Read our full article in Utility Dive and see how leading electric utilities are advancing their outage analytics to help prioritize asset hardening and vegetation management decisions.
