The company, which supplies power to 140,000 customers in central and eastern Washington , was one of several public power and utility companies to present wildfire plans to the Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission .
The 107,000-acre Schneider Springs Fire northwest of Naches affected the Yakima service area and damaged Pacific Power infrastructure in 2021, according to Belleth's presentation. Power was shut off in the Yakima service area during related burn operations in August, Berreth said.
The company found that the Nile area has a heightened or extreme risk of fire, making it a focus for the 2022 mitigation plan.
"Once the high priority areas are defined, we move toward increasing the resiliency of the system in those areas," Belleth said.
To monitor risk, the company is adding five additional weather stations to the Washington landscape by the end of the year, including three near Yakima and two near Walla Walla , Berreth said. It is also completing infrastructure inspections and managing vegetation growth near equipment, he said.
Long-term infrastructure investments are being made near Nile and Cliffdell, with 27 miles of lines identified for rebuilding in the next two years, Berreth said. The lines may be moved, removed, retrofitted with more resilient materials or converted to underground lines during that process, he said.
Nile is also a public safety power shut-off zone, meaning power could be shut off as a last-resort to reduce the risk of wildfires, Berreth said. If a shut-off is needed, Pacific Power sends messaging to all customers in the state, with automatic calls to affected customers and personal calls to customers who have self-identified as having a medical need, Berreth said.
The emergency training plan includes one power shut-off exercise, which will take place in Yakima County in May, Berreth said. He said details on the exercise are still being finalized.
Contact Kate Smith at katesmith@yakimaherald.com.
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