Avista outlines wildfire resiliency measures, warns of longer summer outages

Avista representatives told Spokane County commissioners on July 22 that the utility has expanded a multi-year wildfire resiliency plan and is deploying several new tools to reduce the risk of utility‑sparked wildfires and to improve response. The plan includes strategic undergrounding of high‑risk lines where financially appropriate; replacement of wooden poles with steel; installation of fire‑resistant mesh on pole bases; enhanced, conductor upgrades; and annual, satellite- and drone-based scanning of vegetation along distribution lines. Avista said it now scans ‘‘100%’’ of its lines for dead or dying trees and removes high‑risk trees as identified. Avista said it is also adding situational‑awareness tools: between 50 and 100 new weather stations across its service territory, about 10 mountaintop Pano AI smoke‑detection cameras by year end, and a dashboard that combines wind, humidity, vegetation dryness, historic outage data and local fire‑protection capacity to set automated protection levels for individual line segments. Avista said the dashboard is monitored 24 hours a day. On outage management, Avista described graduated protection settings. In normal conditions lines attempt automatic reenergization up to three times, producing brief ‘‘blinks’’ when transient contacts occur. In fire‑safety mode there is a single automatic reenergization attempt; in ‘‘extreme fire safety mode’’ Avista said it sets protection so there is no automatic reenergization until crews verify a line is clear — a setting the company said can lengthen outages. Avista called public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) a ‘‘tool of last resort’’ and said the utility convenes multiple internal and external partners before implementing one. The company said it used a PSPS once last year and gave a timeline of how it escalates watch→warning→imminent→PSPS notifications, and how it communicates with customers and public‑safety partners. Avista urged residents to register life‑support customers with the utility and to confirm contact information so PSPS notices reach the right phones and emails. The utility also encouraged personal preparedness — charged devices, emergency water and backup power. Avista staff answered commissioners’ questions about how line‑risk tiers are set (the dashboard combines undergrounding, vegetation, human‑impact potential and outage history) and about past operations in wildfire incidents. Commissioners and county staff emphasized the need for advance communication and for lists of medically vulnerable customers; Avista said it will keep working with emergency managers and fire departments and roll out a public‑safety partner app that will map life‑support customers and critical facilities for responders. Avista presenters said the new cameras and weather stations can also provide public weather information and that the company will share station links with local partners.