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May is Wildfire Awareness Month: BPA releases updated Wildfire Mitigation Plan

It’s unanimous! All four Pacific Northwest states have declared May as Wildfire Awareness Month.
It’s unanimous! All four Pacific Northwest states have declared May as Wildfire Awareness Month.
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The improvements we have made to this year's plan strengthen our efforts to prevent wildfires, limit the impact they cause to our assets and system and will help us better coordinate with customers during these challenging events.

John Hairston, CEO and administrator

It's unanimous! All four Pacific Northwest states have declared May as Wildfire Awareness Month. Right on time, the Bonneville Power Administration that serves power and transmission needs in these states, has released its updated Wildfire Mitigation Plan.

“Over the past decade, wildfire season has become more severe and lengthier," said John Hairston, CEO/administrator. “The improvements we have made to this year's plan strengthen our efforts to prevent wildfires, limit the impact they cause to our assets and system and will help us better coordinate with customers during these challenging events."

Here are some of the highlighted modifications to the 2024 plan:

  • Lessons learned since considering and implementing the Public Safety Power Shutoff procedure between 2021 and 2023, including improvements to customer communication as we consider implementing public safety power shutoffs.
  • Evolving wildfire modeling and data integration in partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that informs prioritization of vegetation management and maintenance work on transmission lines posing the greatest wildfire threat.
  • Infusion of lessons learned applying the International Wildfire Risk Mitigation Consortium Maturity Model, which has helped our experts better understand current BPA programs and activities in relation to general utility threats. This has resulted in year-over-year improvements to our plan and activities.

During wildfire season, BPA coordinates with customers and first responders to mitigate threats from wildfires. To learn more about these efforts, see this fact sheet.

“The work that our Wildfire Mitigation team has done will benefit BPA, its customers and the region," said Jeff Cook, vice president Planning and Asset Management. “Applying what we've learned to further mitigate the damage and impacts of wildfire is essential and is important for public safety."

To learn more about wildfire preparedness, visit Ready.gov.

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