Safety is our highest priority, and no activity exemplifies that value more than our wildfire prevention efforts. Since 2007, we have been hard at work strengthening our systems and facilities to reduce the potential for wildfires in our region. One such initiative has been the development of our extensive weather network.

We built the first of its kind dense network of utility-owned weather stations to provide detailed weather data across the service territory, which helps inform day-to-day operational decision-making at all levels of the company. In 2020, we installed 30 additional weather stations, which was the largest expansion of the network since 2011, increasing the number to 220 weather stations across the service territory. Additionally, these new stations, as well as the existing weather stations, were also upgraded in 2020 to enable on-demand wind speed reporting every 30 seconds, rather than every 10 minutes.

The additional information generated by our equipment, which is shared with first responders and academia, enables us to further decrease the footprint of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) when weather conditions permit.