Eugene Water & Electric Board Commissioners recently approved the Oregon public power utility’s 2025 Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
EWEB, which approved the first wildfire mitigation plan in 2022, noted it is committed to preparing year-round for wildfire season.
Last year, Oregon had its worst wildfire season ever with over 1.4 million acres burned.
“The increasing frequency of extreme weather events and threat of natural disasters have prompted EWEB to adapt operational practices while making strategic investments to mitigate wildfire risk and improve electric system resiliency. A resilient system can adapt, withstand, and recover efficiently from a catastrophic event without significant disruption to electric service,” it said.
The threat of wildfire impacts EWEB assets, operations, and customers on a near-annual basis, it noted.
To address this threat, the utility is testing new equipment, leveraging technology, and incorporating third-party expertise to bolster electric system resiliency to a range of threats, including wildfire.
The 2025 Wildfire Mitigation Plan builds on the comprehensive mitigation work described in prior plans, including enhanced operations and maintenance, wildfire season situational awareness tools, grid hardening, and community outreach.
Some notable enhancements in the new plan include:
• Satellite and artificial intelligence technology to pinpoint where vegetation management is most needed.
• Utility-focused fire risk modeling to validate and refine EWEB’s High Fire Risk Zones (HFRZs).
• A second weather station near Blanton Heights to support custom, localized fire weather forecasting.
• New electric equipment in HFRZs to reduce ignition risk and speed outage detection and response.
• Programmatic support to those reliant on power for medical equipment and mobility devices in HRFZs.
In 2024, EWEB began working with a third-party consultant specializing in fire risk modeling to assess the wildfire threat in the EWEB service territory.
The analysis simulated over 11 million wildfire starts under different weather and fuel conditions to determine the highest-risk areas. The results will be used to help prioritize locations for future mitigation investments and ensure operational practices are applied to all high-risk areas.
EWEB has also explored grant opportunities to accelerate wildfire mitigation efforts:
• Oregon Department of Energy Grid Resiliency grant. This $1.2 million project would fund additional resiliency equipment and rebuild nine miles of older distribution in the Cedar Flats neighborhood. This part of EWEB’s service territory experiences more frequent outages due to extreme weather events such as the 2024 ice storm. The three-year grant agreement is currently in contract negotiations.
• FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant. This project will use approved FEMA funds to rebuild overhead lines near the Amazon Headwaters Trail in South Eugene, including undergrounding distribution lines and modernizing transmission structures. Following City permitting, the project should start construction in late summer 2025.
Utilities like EWEB continue to evolve their wildfire mitigation work through industry best practices and input from the communities they serve.
EWEB was one of five public utilities nationwide selected to participate in the American Public Power Association’s Wildfire Mitigation Project, it noted.
"This is a great opportunity for EWEB to leverage Argonne National laboratory expertise and develop data-driven toolkits for future wildfire risk management and planning work," said EWEB Resiliency Program Manager Jeannine Parisi.
Coupled with the most recent fire risk analysis, this project will facilitate the development of a wildfire mitigation investment roadmap and a multi-year action plan, scalable to resource availability and responsive to emergent threats.
“Safety is EWEB’s number one priority, but preparedness is a shared responsibility,” said Parisi.
EWEB is encouraging community members to maintain awareness of wildfire risks and prepare for potential summertime electric outages. Customers in high-risk areas may experience more frequent and extended outages when wildfire operational safety settings are in place, it said.
Additionally, customers in HFRZs should be aware that during extreme fire weather conditions, the utility may enact a Public Safety Power Shutoff, EWEB said.
