No matter what certain technology providers or consultants might tell you, there is no single approach to wildfire mitigation that works for every electric utility, let alone every field team. Effective mitigation relies entirely on location-specific factors, ranging from local terrain to existing infrastructure to the realities of operational budgets. These factors are driving a necessary shift from reactive fire response to predictive mitigation, a transformation that takes center stage at the Wildfire & Weather Emergency Response Summit taking place August 25th in Chicago, IL, during DTECH Reliability & Resiliency.
During the featured session, “From Risk Maps to Capital Plans: Optimizing Grid Hardening Investments for Wildfire Resilience,” presenters will explore how geospatial modeling and localized asset analytics helped Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) execute this shift through targeted protocols that directly enhance system reliability.
Utilizing advanced platforms like Firescape, utilities such as PNM are adjusting what it means for them to simultaneously evaluate risk and consider reliability. Data that is based on all of those location-specific factors is empowering operators to implement operational safeguards without triggering widespread customer disruptions.
“This technology enables utilities to get really granular about where there is high fire risk and what preventative actions they can take, for both the near-term and long-term planning scale,” said Holly Eagleston from Firescape. “For operations planning, that can mean defining specific times of day that risk peaks, allowing operators to significantly narrow the window where they adjust relay protection settings to mitigate fire, balancing safety with reliability.”
If operators only use the National Weather Service’s Red Flag Warning alerts forhigh-stakes operational decisions, then a mitigation recommendation would be applied to the regional fire weather zone, which can span entire counties. Session attendees will learn how PNM and Firescape replace those sweeping datasets with subcircuit-level visibility to showcase the practical difference this kind of shift makes for field teams and local communities.
“What we’re ultimately trying to do is prevent these ignitions from ever occurring,” Eagleston told Factor This. “It’s about leveraging real-time and forecasted data alongside established operational workflows so teams know how to act quickly. Without these tools, decisions were tied to massive geographic zones. Today, granularity lets operators scale their response down from a county-sized area to a single neighborhood.”
Using this approach, high-resolution data can feed directly into distribution management systems like ADMS via SCADA, giving utilities the ability to automate precise control actions in response to dynamic weather threats moving across their territory.
The value of this approach and these tools extends beyond the field as well, as attendees will see how these granular analytics help teams demonstrate the concrete value of a given grid hardening strategy under tight budget limits for long-term capital expenditure planning. These are the kinds of details that are needed when constructing defensible, regulator-ready business cases.
“Being able to quantify how much risk you have is something that needs to be assessed on multiple levels,” Eagleston said. “How do you define risk? How much risk are you avoiding by each mitigation strategy? We use granular analytics to model every candidate mitigation action, from replacing fuses to installing covered conductor, by the risk it buys down per dollar. Everyone has a slightly different approach to how they’re handling wildfires, and we will be presenting a data-driven approach that everyone can learn from.”
See the full Wildfire & Weather Emergency Response Summit program or register for the event.
Facts Only
* No single approach exists for wildfire mitigation across all electric utilities or field teams.
* Effective mitigation depends on location-specific factors, including terrain, infrastructure, and operational budgets.
* There is a shift from reactive fire response to predictive mitigation.
* The Wildfire & Weather Emergency Response Summit is taking place August 25th in Chicago, IL during DTECH Reliability & Resiliency.
* Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) executed a shift through targeted protocols using geospatial modeling and localized asset analytics.
* Utilities are adjusting evaluation to simultaneously consider risk and reliability using platforms like Firescape.
* Firescape enables defining specific times of day when fire risk peaks for operations planning, allowing operators to narrow adjustment windows for relay protection settings.
* Operators can use granular data to scale response from county-sized areas to single neighborhoods.
* High-resolution data can feed into distribution management systems like ADMS via SCADA for automated control actions.
* Analytics help demonstrate the value of grid hardening strategies under budget limits for capital expenditure planning.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative presents a powerful structural shift from broad, generalized risk management based on large geographic zones to highly granular, operational-level mitigation grounded in localized data. The core tension lies between the necessity of achieving system reliability and the implementation of geographically precise, yet operationally feasible, safety measures. The move toward granular analytics challenges the existing framework where high-stakes decisions are often tied to massive, static geographic boundaries (like regional fire weather zones). By providing subcircuit-level visibility, utilities gain the agency to execute precise control actions that balance safety with reliability, moving from generalized alerts to actionable, localized responses.
The mechanism described involves leveraging technology to translate vast environmental data into quantifiable risk exposure for specific assets, thereby operationalizing complex risk assessment within existing infrastructure management systems (ADMS/SCADA). The value proposition shifts from simply warning about a general threat to calculating the precise cost-benefit of specific physical hardening actions—modeling "risk it buys down per dollar." This implies a necessary re-evaluation of how capital planning is justified, demanding that business cases be built not just on risk severity, but on quantified mitigation effectiveness across multiple layers of spatial and operational detail.
The implication for agency involves decentralizing decision-making authority from regional bodies to field teams by providing the necessary tools, contingent upon ensuring these tools are implemented equitably regarding budget allocation and training, avoiding a scenario where data granularity creates new layers of administrative complexity rather than simplifying response. What is not fully explored is how this granular implementation interacts with existing regulatory structures and the inherent friction between real-time operational demands and long-term capital planning cycles.
Sentinel — Human
The text reads like journalistic reporting or a summary of industry discussion, effectively synthesizing complex technical concepts into an accessible narrative focused on operational shifts.