The Oregon Public Utility Commission has approved wildfire mitigation plans proposed by the state’s three investor-owned utilities and supported staff recommendations that the commission said the utilities should implement in the future. 

The three commissioners unanimously signed off on wildfire mitigation plans for Portland General Electric, Pacific Power and Idaho Power. 

PUC Chair Letha Tawney noted that when discussing wildfire in the utility space, there usually are two intertwined questions: Are the utilities meeting the requirements of the law, and are the utilities finding the most cost-efficient way to reduce wildfire risk? 

“Today, we’re not talking about the cost,” Tawney said at the PUC’s June 26 meeting. “Today, we’re talking about whether the utilities are appropriately evaluating the risk [and] responding to that evaluation and what that evaluation tells them.” 

“I still expect the utilities to provide staff with all the evidence that these spending choices are prudent and reasonable,” Tawney added. 

The PUC enlisted Climate Wildfire and Energy Strategies (CWE) to independently evaluate the IOUs’ wildfire mitigation plans. PUC staff also performed their own assessments of the plans. The PUC and CWE largely reached the same conclusions on whether the utilities had followed through on last year’s recommendations. However, there were some differences.  

For example, even though the PUC found that Pacific Power, a division of PacifiCorp, had “partially met” recommendations related to ignition risk driver investigations, short-term fuels and assessment of vegetation actions and timing, CWE concluded the utility “did not meet” the recommendations. 

Heidi Caswell, division administrator of safety, reliability and security at the PUC, said CWE’s analysis was “constrained” to a limited time frame and the specific docket of each utility, while “staff’s view could be informed by other dockets.” 

As for PGE and Idaho Power, CWE and the PUC agreed the two utilities either had met or partly met staff recommendations. 

“Our wildfire mitigation plan, which is approved by the Oregon Public Utility Commission, reflects the company’s ongoing efforts and substantial investments to protect the communities we serve from the risk of wildfire,” Simon Gutierrez, a spokesperson for PacifiCorp, told RTO Insider in an email. “The company is committed to working closely with policymakers and regulators to prevent wildfires before they happen.” 

Recommendations

The PUC provided three recommendations to Pacific Power: 

• • Outline how it plans to incorporate future land use and climate changes to demonstrate how Pacific Power’s “long-term plans align with the future state for those areas.” The PUC noted California has similar requirements, saying some of the processes Pacific Power uses in California can be shared in Oregon.
  • Provide wildfire risk scores for circuit segments.
  • Justify use of vendor project management to reduce costs to deliver covered conductor projects. 

PGE received one recommendation: 

• • Explain actions to address outage data quality, including why PGE uses a record set of only six years and provides information only on vegetation and equipment failure.  

Kellie Cloud, PGE senior director of wildfire and operational compliance, told RTO Insider the utility is “pleased” with the approval and the “acknowledgment of the progress in our wildfire mitigation planning process.” 

“We look forward to working with commission staff, stakeholders and other utilities to continue to advance our mitigation plans,” Cloud said. “PGE has been executing mitigations in advance of fire season; we are now actively monitoring and managing risks in the active season.” 

Idaho Power received three recommendations: 

• • Provide a timeline for when it will model wildfire risk for circuit segments and wildfire risk zones. 
  • Clarify its analysis of its battery program and whether it aims to pursue a rebate program for medically vulnerable customers in Oregon. If not, the utility should explain how those customers are supported during public safety power shutoffs and other events. 
  • Share its vegetation risk index with other IOUs. 

Jordan Rodriguez, spokesperson for Idaho Power, told RTO Insider the utility appreciates the PUC’s approval of the plan. Rodriguez added that the wildfire plan details how the utility uses “wildfire risk modeling tools, extensive system hardening efforts and growth in coordination with community partners.” 

Future Plans

The utilities presented their plans in February and touted various grid-hardening efforts under way, such as undergrounding of lines, installment of more powerful weather stations, fire-proofing utility poles and improved forecasting models. (See Oregon Utilities Enter 2025 With Ambitious Wildfire Plans.) 

During the meeting June 26, CWE consultant Melissa Semcer said communities on the West Coast are facing the threat of “catastrophic wildfires,” whether from ignition by utility equipment or another source. Semcer argued the future of wildfire prevention should not just focus on undergrounding or other traditional mitigation efforts. 

She posed the question of whether ratepayer dollars can be used for land management outside of utilities’ right of way “or to potentially invest into home hardening.” 

“And might that actually be less expensive and negate the need to have some of those larger investments of undergrounding?” Semcer said. “And I think that’s really the bleeding edge of where this conversation is across the West at this point, is to maybe move out of our boxes and our silos that we’ve all … been in and try to come up with what is the comprehensive solution, because it is such a large amount of money.”