Managing the Unexpected: Wildfire Risk in Power Infrastructure

Wildfires pose a significant challenge to the communities, environment, and infrastructure in wildfire-prone areas. The power grid infrastructure in particular can be affected by, and contributing to, wildfires. A three lines of defense (3LD) framework can be adopted to effectively manage the risk of wildfires in electric power infrastructure. The first line of defense focuses on strategies to prevent wildfires from occurring in the first place. Recognizing that the first line of defense may not always hold, the second line of defense is focused on mitigation strategies and proactive response, should a wildfire spark. Finally, if a wildfire sparks and spreads despite all the defensive measures in the first two lines, we need a third line of defense that is focused on resilience-building measures and recovery preparedness so the system can bounce back to its pre-wildfire condition as quickly as possible without suffering devastating losses.