Strengthening
Our System

We are committed to continuing our strategic investments to strengthen our power grid, build resilience and increase our situational awareness to mitigate wildfire risks. Our work in this area includes:

• Performing focused inspections of assets like poles and wires in Wildfire Risk Zones to determine potential areas of concern.
• Replacing equipment and poles with new, safer technology and removing equipment that may create the potential for incidents that could lead to a wildfire.
• Analyzing the strength of transmission and distribution structures to withstand potential wind speeds and maintain adequate clearances.
• Conducting enhanced trimming of trees and other vegetation around our infrastructure.

In this evolving effort, new technology plays a key role in strengthening our system. We’ve implemented UAS (commonly referred to as ‘drones’) for inspecting equipment and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)-equipped helicopter inspections along electric lines within Wildfire Risk Zones. LiDAR sensing creates 3D maps of our equipment to perform wind strength analysis. This helps us make informed decisions about where we might consider hardening equipment like power poles and other infrastructure to reduce the likelihood of equipment being damaged by trees during extreme weather conditions.

While it’s impossible to eliminate every risk, we continually maintain and upgrade our system and collaborate with other utilities to identify innovative methods to protect people and property.

Read more in our annual report and multi-year wildfire mitigation plan.