Overhead electric transmission and distribution systems are vulnerable to wildfires and they are “critical systems” in terms of electric security and customer service reliability. Aside from the potential impact on system reliability, wildfires can also result in lives lost, buildings destroyed and acres burned. Several wildfires in the recent years, and the subsequent devastation linked to the overhead electric systems, highlight the importance of detecting and mitigating the risks early so the impact of wildfires can be minimized.
What is fire mitigation? Fire mitigation is a series of steps that utilities can take to reduce the risk of a wildfire. What can utilities do to gain situational awareness of the conditions on their overhead transmission and distribution lines to pinpoint and mitigate wildfire risks? In this webinar, two industry professionals will share their knowledge and expertise in wildfire risk mitigation. Please note this webinar will be 90 minutes so that the presenters will have the opportunity to cover this important subject thoroughly.
Quantifying the short-term and long-term risks is the foundation of any wildfire strategy for an electric utility. “A Practitioner's Guide to Assessing Wildfire Risk” will be presented by David Howell, P.E., who is the Director of Electric Operations for Avista Utilities. He has responsibility for electric construction and trouble response, construction services, and asset maintenance, including vegetation management and the company’s wildfire resiliency program. He has been with Avista for 16 years and has more than 20 years of experience in the utility industry, working in both natural gas and electric transmission and distribution systems. David holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Washington State University and an EMBA from the University of Washington. He is a Professional Engineer in both mechanical and electrical engineering in Washington State.
Jacqueline Noto, Risk Aggregation Manager at AEGIS, will provide an overview of the AEGIS approach to wildfire modeling and analytics, specifically, the publicly available data sources that she and her team use to define wildfire exposure for AEGIS members. Sample analysis will be provided to illustrate the usefulness of various tools. Jackie leads the Catastrophe Modeling team in multi-peril exposure analysis. She has more than a decade of experience in catastrophe modeling and analytics with an emphasis on climate perils. At AEGIS, Jackie has partnered with both Underwriting and Loss Control to expand the scope of analytics available for understanding wildfire and flood hazards. Prior to joining AEGIS in 2017, Jackie worked for Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the leading global provider of catastrophe modeling software and services for the insurance industry. At RMS, she spent several years working with an array of companies on technical evaluations of catastrophe model methodology, designing best practices for using cat models, interpreting changes in loss across multiple model versions, and developing subject matter expertise on storm surge and flood risk management. Additionally, Jackie served as the Product Manager for RMS U.S. Inland Flood and Storm Surge products. She has a B.S. in Meteorology from Penn State University.
