Overview

The increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including catastrophic wildfires, are challenging electric companies and the customers and communities they serve. Reducing wildfire risks and ensuring the ability of electric companies to invest in wildfire risk mitigation for the safety of their customers is a top industry priority.

EEI and our member companies are leading efforts to develop a national, holistic approach that is needed to help all stakeholders enhance safety and reduce wildfire risks and to ensure electric companies can make investments in resilient clean energy for customers. Wildfires are a societal problem that require societal-level solutions.

Objectives

EEI and our member companies have identified three broad objectives to address wildfire risks and liability. We are:

  • Sharing leading practices and working to establish a common understanding of the range of risk-informed wildfire mitigation activities that electric companies can undertake to reduce ignitions from electric infrastructure.
  • Expanding partnerships with the full complement of stakeholders needed to address wildfire risk at the community, state, and federal levels.
  • Working closely with regulators, policymakers, ratings agencies, and investors to ensure that electric companies are well-positioned to continue supporting national and economic security; building a clean, resilient energy sector; and helping electrify other sectors.

EEI Member Company Mitigation Efforts

EEI’s member companies are making significant investments to enhance energy grid resilience and reliability. As part of these investments, members are working to limit potential wildfire ignitions related to their infrastructure. These efforts include:

  • The development and deployment of new technologies, such as cameras and sensors, to ensure better situational awareness and wildfire detection capabilities.
  • Selective undergrounding of high-priority and high-risk lines.
  • The use of covered conductors to strengthen lines and to prevent sparking when debris comes into contact with broken power lines.
  • The expanded use of automatic reclosers with more sensitive settings to prevent sparking when the system detects an anomaly.
  • Vegetation management on electric transmission and distribution rights-of-way.

Member companies also are utilizing existing mutual assistance frameworks to expedite emergency response capabilities to restore power after extreme weather events and to implement, when necessary, proactive shutoffs to minimize the risk of wildfires during certain weather conditions. Coordination with first responders can help ensure any fires—regardless of the ignition source—can be controlled and fought, ultimately limiting damages to the surrounding communities.

Review the industry’s Comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Strategy.

Learn more about EEI member company mitigation efforts in our white paper: A Holistic Approach to Wildfire Risk Mitigation for Electric Companies and Their Customers.

Highlights: Member Company Actions

Federal Government Resources

While electric companies are making investments to address the risks that their equipment might pose, the increasing frequency and destructive force of wildfires must be addressed holistically.

EEI member companies, along with the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) Wildfire Working Group, are working with the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Security Council, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other agencies to advance strategies to enhance industry-government coordination, harmonize allocation of resources, and identify barriers to the industry’s detection, mitigation, and restoration capabilities.

EEI Member Company Resources

EEI Wildfire Webinar Series

EEI Issue Communities

The EEI Issue Communities provide members with an online forum to facilitate policy development, information exchange and networking. Members can communicate and share ideas, participate in discussion forums, send email blasts, create file libraries, organize conference calls, and keep track of important dates and upcoming events.

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