REU’s 2026 wildfire mitigation plan approved; city pilots an internal decision‑support tool

Redding Electric Utility Director Nick Zettle presented the utility’s 2026 Wildfire Mitigation Plan and the independent evaluator (Dudek) review, which concluded the plan is comprehensive, risk‑based and meets regulatory expectations. Council voted to accept the plan and the evaluator’s report.

Zettle described a new operational decision‑support tool developed in‑house that pulls hourly local weather and fire indices and pushes flags to staff when thresholds are approached. "This wildfire plan's been in place since 2018... 1 of the items we focused on this year is part of PSPS, but also just getting some more operational intelligence... It pulls in information on wind speed, fire potential indices, burn indices, different weather patterns and it's grabbing local weather data at local weather stations," Zettle said. The tool is intended to provide a shared operating picture across departments and improve situational awareness during multi‑day weather events.

Zettle outlined a multi‑year roadmap to 2032 to direct capital work (e.g., targeted undergrounding or covered conductor pilots) toward the highest‑value risk reductions. He also described ongoing outreach to customers in potential PSPS areas, including door‑to‑door information drops and targeted notifications. The independent evaluator gave the utility an overall favorable assessment; councilmembers praised the outreach elements and approved staff’s request to transmit the plan to the regional Wildfire Safety Advisory Board for further review.