Oregon Wildfire Mitigation PlanJune 18, 2019

David Lucas, Vice President, T&D Operations Heide Caswell, Director, Asset Performance / Wildfire Mitigation

Amy McCluskey, Director, Asset Management

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GOAL: Develop and deploy an integrated and multifaceted wildfire preparedness strategy to protect customers and communities from increased wildfire risk.

OBJECTIVES:

Resilient systems with lower likelihood of fault events

Response when faults occur, including equipment and personnel plans to minimize scope and duration of the fault event

Situational awareness and operational readiness designed to mitigate impacts to the system

Maintenance of the plan, assessment of its effectiveness and review of impacts on stakeholders

Key Objectives of Plan

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Risk Based Approach • Fire Threat Modeling

Situational Awareness • Weather Monitoring• ODF Coordination• Operational Response• Public Safety Power Shutoff

Resiliency Plans• Inspection / Correction• Vegetation Management• System Hardening

Wildfire Mitigation Plan

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Utilizing fire threat modeling concepts, areas were identified in Oregon where there is an elevated risk of utility-associated wildfires to occur and spread rapidly, and where communities face an elevated risk of damage or harm from wildfires

Fire High Consequence Areas (FHCAs) are used to prioritize wildfire mitigation initiatives, such as, increased inspections, system hardening and modified operating practices

Risk-Based Approach

Overhead Total Line Miles

Overhead Distribution

Overhead Transmission

Substations

FHCA 2,679 (17%) 2,255 (17.5%) 424 (14%) 27 (10%)

Pacific Power Total 15,946 12,890 3,056 274

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Weather Monitoring Weather station data aggregation, applied forecasting methodology,

alerts and access to data through online web service

Working to install additional weather monitoring equipment providing more localized weather information to inform decisions

Partnering with Oregon Department of Forestry Leverage operations center with additional HD camera installations

Exchanged view shed graphics to target installation location priorities

Improved response to fire threats by initiating coordination when either team responds to an event

Operational Response Fire risk tools and additional personnel

Remote construction fuel reduction/fire suppression

Situational Awareness

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Situational Awareness

PSPS

Extreme Risk Days

(monitoring / resources)

Red Flag Warning Days (Relay / Control Settings)

Weather / Fire Risk MonitoringImplementation of weather monitoring and weather forecasting in localized areas, including installation of weather monitoring stations

Utilization of protection and control settings during Red Flag Warning Days, which require additional field patrols before re-energizing lines after a fault event

During Extreme Risk Days, in identified areas, deploy additional resources to area for assessment/monitoring at a local level

Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) during Extreme Risk Days wherethresholds for wind and low precipitation have been exceeded

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Immediate Action

Enhanced transmission inspection (Infrared / Corona)

Distribution inspections for all overhead facilities in the FHCA

Addressed identified conditions within the FHCA

Treating poles with fire retardant spray / wrap

Prior to Next Season

Continue inspections

Maintain accelerated correction cycle for conditions within FHCA

Implement risk modeling software with functional attributes

Next 5 Years

Continue enhanced line inspections

Evaluate modifications to on-going detail inspection program

Refine risk modeling software to improve identifying risk

Resiliency: Inspection and Correction

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• Immediate Action Vegetation inspection for facilities in FHCA before fire season ensuring

clearance during fire season

Begin radial pole clearing of 27,000 poles

• Prior to Next Season Annual vegetation inspection of FHCA circuits prior to fire season

Identifying and implementing best practices for increased clearances based on localized risks

Develop criteria for targeting higher risk tree removal

• Next 5 Years Evaluation of trimming cycle in FHCA for modification to an increased

frequency

Oregon currently on a 4 year cycle with a 2 year interim

Resiliency: Vegetation Management

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Immediate Action

Accelerated replacement of identified poles as part of inspection program

Development of new construction standards for improved wildfire resistance

Prior to Next Season

Implementation of design standards in FHCA

Continued use of fire retardant pole wrapping / spray in identified areas to increase structure resiliency

Begin prioritized relay upgrades for additional fault detection capabilities

Resiliency: System Hardening

Next 5 Years Wood structure replacement with fire resilient materials Insulated conductor for circuits in the FHCA, reducing the susceptibility

to external factors such as incidental contact

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Appendix

• Definitions

• Fire High Consequence Area Map

• Customer Communication and Community Partnerships

• Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS) Process

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Definitions

FHCA: Utilizing the same modeling concepts used in California, Fire High Consequence Areas (FHCA) were identified in Oregon where there is an elevated risk of utility-associated wildfires to occur and spread rapidly, and where communities face an elevated risk of damage or harm from wildfires

KBDI: The Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), which assesses the risk of fire by representing the net effect of evapotranspiration and precipitation in producing cumulative moisture deficiency.

FFWI: Hourly Fosberg Fire Weather Index (FFWI), which uses temperature, relative humidity, 10-minute wind-speed factored into a single weather index which is correlated to influence on fire spread, over a 6 hour period (FFWI6).

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Service Territory

Fire High Consequence Area

Pacific Power Oregon FHCA

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• Advertising‒ Print‒ Radio‒ Digital‒ Social• Earned media• Public meetings• Informational

sheets• Resource center on

our website

Customer Communication

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1. Utilizing weather systems monitoring, an alert is generated when thresholds are forecast to be exceeded (triggers rely on wind, temperature, humidity, recent precipitation and cumulative moisture deficiency), and a candidate proactive de-energization event is triggered.

2. When a candidate event is triggered, a Proactive De-energization Event Plan is prepared which contains the timing details, area, and forecasted duration of the event (if known).

3. At that time, the company’s emergency operations center is activated and incident command system is adopted.

4. As conditions become more certain, the emergency operations center, incorporating feedback from local emergency services, operational personnel and weather forecasters will determine if the PSPS event is imminent.

5. Notifications are then made to PacifiCorp internal departments for next steps:

• Emergency Management for local emergency services notification (at least 48 hours is targeted)

• Customer Service for customer notification (48 hours notice is desired)

• Regulation for notification to the regulatory authorities

• Local Operations for required switching / line patrolling

• Regional Business Manager for preparation of customer care centers and large customer contact

• Customer Service for telecommunications customer notifications

• Media relations for media channels

6. If appropriate and conditions abate, the PSPS event may be canceled and customers, emergency services, regulators and media channels will be notified.

7. Conditions are continuously monitored and when thresholds are no longer exceeded, crews will be prepositioned if possible and lines will be patrolled and re-energized with recognition of importance of early restoration based on community needs.

Monitoring and Mobilization for PSPS

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High Wind Gusts

Public Safety Power

Shut-off

Pacific Power Emergency Operation

Center (EOC) Active

PSPS Watch

Stable Environmental

Conditions

Short Term Environmental

Conditions

• Environmental• Locational• Situational

DroughtFire Weather Index

Sustained wind speedsGusting Winds

Precipitation

Wind

Wind

Additional Criteria

While mainly elevated through environmental conditions (Precipitation and wind); the decision to implement PSPS considers additional criteria:

Environmental Recent precipitation Wind directionality Recent fire activity throughout service territory

Locational Alternative ways to re‐route power to affected areas Impacts on mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders in

place (ingress / egress routes)

Situational Real‐time situational awareness information from

personnel positioned in the impacted areas identified as potentially at risk

Current fire activity throughout service territory Input from local emergency services and response

authorities

High Wind Gusts

Public Safety Power Shut-off Criteria

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• 72 - 48 Hours, Candidate PSPS: Forecast received. Contact begins with emergency management, state regulatory authority, media, social media platforms, customers, and community based organizations (such as Red Cross).

• 24 Hours, Candidate PSPS: Monitor and continue to communicate to emergency management and customers. All customers will receive an outbound call in addition to other methods of notification. All social media platforms updated, including website. Begin direct contact of identified life support customers.

• 2 Hours, Imminent PSPS: Two hour imminent alert outbound calls are placed to all customers. List of uncontacted life support customers is provided to the incident commander. All social media platforms updated, including website. Emergency management, media, and community based organizations are updated.

• 1 Hour, Imminent PSPS: One hour imminent alert outbound calls are placed to all customers. All social media platforms updated, including website. Emergency management and media are updated.

• Event Begins: Event begins; outbound calls are placed to all customers. All social media platforms updated, including website. Emergency management and media are updated.

Pacific Power EOC monitors situation and communication

PSPS Customer Communication