Pacific Power on Wednesday opened its new Wildfire Intelligence Center to public safety partners and members of the media to share information about how the company informs its operational decisions during wildfire season.
Pacific Power’s wildfire intelligence team started daily monitoring of wildfire ignitions in early May. So far the staff of 15 has monitored more than 1,300 fires, provided support and active monitoring during 35 emergency de-energizations and averted 35 other de-energizations through rapid intelligence gathering and assessment.
“The Wildfire Intelligence Center gives us the opportunity to minimize the size and frequency of emergency de-energizations due to wildfire, and to communicate with customers in advance of those de-energizations,” said Erik Brookhouse, Pacific Power’s vice president of operations. “We know power outages can be a hardship for customers, and we are using real-time information from our wildfire intelligence team to help minimize these impacts.”
The team operates in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, and is growing toward 24/7 coverage. The Wildfire Intelligence Center demonstrates Pacific Power’s commitment to building stronger relationships with federal, state and local agencies to improve communication and information sharing in order to enhance coordination and accelerate response times.
Wildfires and extreme weather are growing threats that impact the health, safety and livelihoods of everyone in Oregon. Pacific Power continues to invest in strengthening its electrical system, enhancing situational awareness and evolving its operational response to prevent utility-caused wildfires while continuing to provide safe and reliable power to customers.
Source: Pacific Power