![\"Consumers](\"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/c-400-pp4-5-November-2019_Page_1_Image_0001-340x292.jpg\")
For Billy Terry, director of operations at Philomath-based Consumers Power Inc., wildfire is not just something that worries him as he oversees the co-op\u2019s vast utility infrastructure crossing forestland. It\u2019s something that keeps him up at night.<\/p>\n
As a former line crew foreman with California\u2019s beleaguered Pacific Gas & Electric, Terry witnessed firsthand the devastation fire can unleash on rural communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen families return to their home with nothing left standing except the chimneys,\u201d Terry said. \u201cIt\u2019s an experience you will never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oregon\u2019s electric cooperatives are industry leaders when it comes to taking measures to reduce the risk of wildfires. Their proximity to state and federal forestlands has made this a priority for decades. But there is no doubt 2018\u2019s Camp Fire\u2014California\u2019s most destructive and deadly blaze\u2014has brought utility wildfire preparedness to the forefront of policy debates in Oregon\u2019s Capitol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way we have done business in the past won\u2019t work in this new landscape, and with this new and changing level of risk,\u201d said Leetha Tawney of Oregon Public Utilities Commission at a recent meeting on wildfire mitigation.<\/p>\n
Gov. Kate Brown convened a governor\u2019s council on wildfire response that looks closely at the intersection of wildfire and the electric utility industry. The Oregon Legislature likely will develop legislation based on the council\u2019s recommendations during the 2020 February short session.<\/p>\n
While Oregon\u2019s electric cooperatives will be at the table for such discussions, they haven\u2019t waited for legislation or regulations to take steps to ensure a Camp Fire-type event never occurs here.<\/p>\n
For CPI, which has a heavily forested service territory that runs from the coast to the Cascade mountains, mitigating wildfire hazards is as fundamental as providing safe and reliable power to their members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is to have a plan, act on the plan and then review it annually,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n CPI\u2019s wildfire mitigation plan was developed based on information from state and local fire agencies, the PUC and internal risk analysis, as well as other industry-accepted practices. It consists of three main components: vegetation management, system hardening and system coordination.<\/p>\n CPI\u2019s vegetation management plan includes hazard tree assessment and removal, and trimming and mowing in the right-of-way. Technology plays a vital role with drone patrols and lidar (light detection and ranging). While CPI also deploys helicopters to enhance its transmission line inspection, Terry believes that in extreme fire areas there is no substitute for boots on the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to increase our foot patrols of the lines prior to fire season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n System hardening\u2014building an infrastructure that can withstand a fire\u2014includes measures such as selective wood pole replacement with alternative materials in high fire areas as well as strategically converting overhead lines to underground.<\/p>\n The system coordination component is what occasionally keeps Terry and his crew up at night as they alternate 24-hour monitoring of their system during red flag warnings\u2014conditions that are ideal for wildland fire combustion.<\/p>\n From their dispatch center, they rely on their SCADA system to constantly monitor CPI\u2019s infrastructure in six counties and implement measures to mitigate any potential fire. These measures include isolating line not necessary for power delivery. CPI de-energized miles of non-critical power lines to help limit their fire exposure.<\/p>\n CPI\u2019s hypervigilance about wildfire mitigation is based on its understanding of how a simple spark can race out of control.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Camp Fire burned the equivalent of a football field per second,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n Some of the highest fire risk areas identified by the state of Oregon were in CPI\u2019s service territory in the Cascade Mountains.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was as if they overlaid the high fire areas right on our system map,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n One of the more controversial measures that Oregon\u2019s electric cooperatives are not contemplating are public safety power shutoffs. In October, California\u2019s PG&E cut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers to prevent wildfires amid high winds and dry conditions in Northern California.<\/p>\n As Terry pointed out, if Oregon electric co-ops execute their comprehensive wildfire plans, they will not have to resort to more extreme\u2014and potentially life-threatening\u2014measures such as public safety power shutoffs to mitigate wildfire risks.<\/p>\n \u201cOur job is to safely keep the lights on,\u201d Terry said. \u201cThe last thing we want to do is shut them off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the Oregon Legislature considers wildfire mitigation measures, Oregon electric co-ops are implementing plans to protect their communities By Ted Case For Billy Terry, director of operations at Philomath-based Consumers Power Inc., wildfire is not just something that worries him as he oversees the co-op\u2019s vast utility infrastructure crossing forestland. It\u2019s something that keeps him […]\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":33536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"California\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/c-400-pp4-5-November-2019_Page_2_Image_0001-340x321.jpg\")