Wildfire safety practices

Wildfires are an unfortunate reality in B.C. That's why we take extra steps to help reduce the risk to the communities we serve. With hundreds of employees across B.C., including in the Southern Interior, we’re not just serving these communities—we are part of them. We live, work and raise our families here, and we care deeply about the safety and well-being of our neighbours.

Proactive measures

We act throughout the year to keep the communities we serve safe and reduce the risk of wildfire. This includes:

• Design and construction. We regularly upgrade equipment and structures to strengthen our system and reduce wildfire risk.
• Inspection and maintenance. Vegetation management and inspections help maintain safe operations and reduce contact between infrastructure and vegetation.
• Wildfire preparedness training. Our employees receive training to ensure they can safely respond to wildfire threats near our infrastructure.
• Wildfire risk monitoring. Our teams use interactive tools to help assess wildfire risks around our electricity infrastructure, improving decision-making and response readiness.
• Power line safety settings. When wildfire risk is high, we turn on enhanced safety settings to help reduce the risk of wildfires. For example, we adjust the sensitivity of our equipment to turn off power faster than our standard setting. Instead of letting our system restart the power line itself, we will check the line manually. This way, we can ensure it is safe to restore power.
• Active wildfire preparedness and response. During active wildfires, we may shut off power in consultation with local fire authorities to support firefighting efforts. We work to maintain power to critical infrastructure such as water delivery systems where possible. We may also apply fire suppressant and fire blankets to protect our equipment.
• Public Safety Power Shutoff. The Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) is a new policy that could see us shut off power to sections of our system during periods of extreme wildfire risk to reduce ignition sources. A PSPS event is tool of last resort that we anticipate would be used rarely.

Possible outages during wildfire season

Our priority is to keep the power on. However, outages can occur as we work to protect you and your community from wildfires. Just like outages from storms, maintenance, or car accidents, it is important to be prepared. That means having a plan, supplies and a way to stay informed.

Your feedback is important to us

We’re committed to listening, engaging in meaningful conversations, and working together to find the best path forward in implementing our new PSPS policy. Before initiating a PSPS event, we will consider additional factors including the input we receive from local community members. Learn more about our wildfire safety practices and PSPS with our top questions and answers.

You can also submit a question or comment directly to our team.

Join us for an open house

Join us for an in-person public open house to learn more about our wildfire safety practices and our PSPS policy.