VIDEO: 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 Powerโs 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 utility reported.
โThe 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,โ said Erik Brookhouse, Pacific Powerโs vice president of operations. โWe 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.โ Pacific Power says the team operates in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, and is growing toward 24/7 coverage.
