Why Technology Will Be The ‘Rain’ We Need to Extinguish Future Wildfires

Coming off a cooler than normal Labor Day weekend in the Pacific Northwest, warmer temperatures and the threat of wildfire remains. An Oregon article posted earlier today titled, East winds, heat wave could fan wildfire flames in Oregon over the weekend - OPB shared the cost associated with wildfire and the expected increase in the years to come.

“The Forest Service has so far spent $759 million fighting fires in Oregon this year. The agency spends an annual average of $2.9 billion suppressing wildfires across the country. That price is expected to rise as much as 84% by 2050, as climate change fuels bigger, more expensive wildfires.

Wildfire mitigation and broader emergency response are the responsibility of many agencies. In the past few weeks, I’ve posted articles primarily focused on the utility's role. However, emergency response calls on many, and the technology to support is rapidly evolving. During wildfire events, the sheriff’s office actively communicates threat levels and evacuation routes. Dispatch teams manage interagency communications. Communication teams actively post updates and critical information via radio, websites, social channels, and highway reader boards. And, of course, fire agencies address changing conditions of the fire.

These agencies are also evolving the strategies to manage the traditional network through undergrounding of power lines, and microgrids. The complex ecosystem of risk strategies, technology, and agencies involved are a key driver

Operationalizing new technologies and strategies requires broad adoption

Wildfire mitigation and broader emergency response are the responsibility of many agencies. I’ve primarily focused on the utility's role in this series. However, emergency response calls on many. During wildfire events, the sheriff’s office actively communicates threat levels and evacuation routes. Dispatch teams manage interagency communications. Communication teams actively post updates and critical information via radio, websites, social channels, and highway reader boards. And, of course, fire agencies address changing conditions of the fire.

Slalom has been actively working with state Department of Natural Resource leaders on the West Coast. Last year, following fire season, a contingent of agencies gathered to assess opportunities to better serve the community and responding agencies related to wildfires. Our team gathered input on the number of involved agencies, totaling 19 entities. Even with the best tools, technology, and people involved, wildfire situational awareness and response can decrease quickly.

Our teams work across these groups to align around a shared vision and strategy and develop innovative data and technology capabilities. Adopting and implementing these new capabilities across agencies is just as important. As a utility gains a new capability for vegetation management, the insights gained from the planning organization must be shared with operations that will take action. Operation team members, therefore, should be included in critical milestones of development to ensure the eventual solution meets their needs and is impactful in addressing the original goal. With a cross-section of key stakeholders, ideas are continually generated that incrementally improve the overall impact.

In a previous Combating Wildfire Season With Strategies Driven By Technology article, I discussed wildfire and vegetation risk modeling our Slalom team delivered for a West Coast utility. We developed a clear picture of vegetation moisture content measurement and demonstrated how technology and commercially available satellite imagery could more timely update risk assessments. To improve upon this model, a close collaboration between Utility Planners and Operations is required. The model benefits from “ground truthing,” which is the process for those in the field to validate models that depend on satellite imagery with observations on the ground. This feedback loop improves the model's training, and importantly, gains the trust of Utility team members that evaluate the urgency of vegetation management actions to be taken.

Getting creative by taking a seasonal approach to managing risk

In an industry responsible for managing sprawling infrastructure, lands, and customer relationships, it is common that strategies historically have been defined at macro levels. Today, our customers are changing how they develop comprehensive, multi-faceted strategies. For example, utilities with power lines in high-risk environments are undertaking expensive and time-consuming projects to move lines underground. Regulators have pushed back on utilities that use this approach too broadly because the high cost could not be justified. Burying lines may work for some communities, while micro-grids better serve others. Microgrids are a set of generators and power lines serving a smaller portion of the community that can be controlled separately from the rest of the grid. These smaller communities can be served via microgrid during wildfire season and the broader grid during off-seasons. This evolution of strategy combines the management of the traditional grid, underground lines, and microgrids.

With all this strategy talk, you might wonder how technology comes into play. We have seen a significant increase in the demand from our customers to enable application platforms that provide leaders the ability to assess current status, scenario plan, and run simulations. At the root of these goals is the ability to increase resiliency.

Let’s again consider the strategy mix of traditional grid, underground lines, and microgrids. The balance of these decisions in managing the network evolves with the changing vegetation conditions, weather events, and decisions for the optimal power flow on lines. ?Application platforms that overlay these dynamic layers over infrastructure for the purposes of decision-making fit within the definition of Digital Twin. This Digital Twin application view of the real-world conditions can enable the numerous agencies involved in wildfire response to arrive at an aligned view of risk, and actions to be taken. Further, this digital replica provides a physics-based platform to run scenarios such as weather events that could cause a hot and sagging power line to react with nearby vegetation. These scenarios provide the opportunity to strategize where to place emergency response assets, routing, evacuation paths and shelters, and agency coordination.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts on resiliency related to wildfire. Again, I am so thankful to our customers who ask our Slalom teams to bring innovative technology solutions to address the strategic goals in utilities and emergency response. It is clear wildfire will continue to be a risk our communities face. As we develop new solutions, engage with our communities, and develop cross-organizational alignment, I’m confident we will drive towards more resilient infrastructure and communities.

If you missed the previous posts in this series, check out the links below:

Combating Wildfire Season With Strategies Driven By Technology

Managing the Spark: The role of vegetation, technology, vulnerability, and coordination in power shut off decisions?

Gretchen Peri , Timothy Stafford , Anthony Marquardt , Gregory Agamalian (he/him) , Chelsea Cole , Anthony Gould