How wildfires are changing the U.S. electric grid
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Years of destructive wildfires are forcing U.S. utilities to redesign their power grids to withstand a more fire-prone climate. As utilities plan a major grid expansion, they are incorporating wildfire resilience strategies into infrastructure projects costing billions of dollars.
How wildfires are changing U.S. electric grid planning
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4 hours ago - Energy & Climate
Wildfires become a grid planning challenge
* Rebecca Falconer
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!Long-exposure night scene: purple sky with star trails and red/white light trails; a warmly lit house sits on a hill among dark trees, with an orange glow at the horizon.
*The Feliz Fire near Hopland, California, on Aug 1. Photo: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images*
Years of destructive fires are forcing utilities to prioritize wildfire resilience as they plan the next generation of the U.S. electric grid.
**Why it matters:** Utilities aren't just expanding the electric grid — they're designing it to withstand a more fire-prone climate.
* This year's wildfire season is exceeding the 10-year average for both the number of fires and acres burned.
**The big picture:** The U.S. is embarking on one of the biggest grid expansions in decades just as wildfire risk is becoming a defining challenge for utilities. Today's planning decisions may determine how resilient tomorrow's grid becomes.
* Utilities are combining weather models, wildfire behavior, infrastructure data and population impacts to help prioritize resilience investments, Nadia Panossian, an electrical engineering researcher at the National Laboratory of the Rockies, tells Axios.
* Undergrounding — burying power lines underground — can also improve resilience to hurricanes, winter storms and other hazards, Seth Guikema, a University of Michigan professor of civil and environmental engineering, tells Axios.
* He says utilities also have to manage aging infrastructure, which in many cases is "the bigger challenge than building new."
**State of play:** Wildfires are already affecting how utilities operate.
* They disrupt the power system by damaging equipment, forcing utilities to cut power, and reducing solar generation when smoke blocks sunlight.
**Yes, but:** Preventing outages is no longer enough. Utilities now have to incorporate wildfire resilience into grid projects.
**Case in point:** California was one of the first states to require investor-owned utilities to publish wildfire resilience plans, Panossian says.
* Other states have adopted similar approaches as wildfire risk grows.
* Panossian says utilities are moving beyond "basic minimum maintenance" toward longer-term upgrades that account for future wildfire risks.
* Some California utilities are already experimenting with microgrids that can disconnect from the main grid and keep supplying power during outages as wildfire risk grows, Guikema says.
* But those investments "can be cost-prohibitive — and that's the challenge," he adds.
**Catch up quick:** Utilities have already learned costly lessons about wildfires.
* California utilities have spent billions on wildfire mitigation.
* PG&E emerged from bankruptcy after Camp Fire-related liabilities.
* Utilities across the West now conduct public safety power shutoffs. "They shut the power off because you'd rather have a short-term power outage than a catastrophic fire," Panossian says.
**What we're watching:** The grid is poised for a major expansion. The U.S. needs thousands of miles of new transmission to connect renewables, storage and data centers.
* Much of the U.S. grid also needs to be replaced. As utilities evaluate those upgrades, Panossian says, they're looking for opportunities to build wildfire resilience into those projects.
* Guikema says utility planning is, in many ways, a cost-risk trade-off. "How much are we willing to increase our utility rates to do undergrounding and things like that?" he says.
* In some cases, he says, regulators — not utilities — are limiting resilience investments because of cost concerns.
**The bottom line:** California has shown utilities what wildfire planning looks like. As wildfire risk spreads beyond the West, those lessons are shaping how the next generation of the U.S. grid is built.
**Go deeper:** Federal lab cuts could hamper fire forecasting efforts
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4 hours ago - Energy & Climate
Wildfires become a grid planning challenge
* Rebecca Falconer
*
*
*
Add Axios on Google
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Add Axios on Google
!Long-exposure night scene: purple sky with star trails and red/white light trails; a warmly lit house sits on a hill among dark trees, with an orange glow at the horizon.
*The Feliz Fire near Hopland, California, on Aug 1. Photo: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images*
Years of destructive fires are forcing utilities to prioritize wildfire resilience as they plan the next generation of the U.S. electric grid.
**Why it matters:** Utilities aren't just expanding the electric grid — they're designing it to withstand a more fire-prone climate.
* This year's wildfire season is exceeding the 10-year average for both the number of fires and acres burned.
**The big picture:** The U.S. is embarking on one of the biggest grid expansions in decades just as wildfire risk is becoming a defining challenge for utilities. Today's planning decisions may determine how resilient tomorrow's grid becomes.
* Utilities are combining weather models, wildfire behavior, infrastructure data and population impacts to help prioritize resilience investments, Nadia Panossian, an electrical engineering researcher at the National Laboratory of the Rockies, tells Axios.
* Undergrounding — burying power lines underground — can also improve resilience to hurricanes, winter storms and other hazards, Seth Guikema, a University of Michigan professor of civil and environmental engineering, tells Axios.
* He says utilities also have to manage aging infrastructure, which in many cases is "the bigger challenge than building new."
**State of play:** Wildfires are already affecting how utilities operate.
* They disrupt the power system by damaging equipment, forcing utilities to cut power, and reducing solar generation when smoke blocks sunlight.
**Yes, but:** Preventing outages is no longer enough. Utilities now have to incorporate wildfire resilience into grid projects.
**Case in point:** California was one of the first states to require investor-owned utilities to publish wildfire resilience plans, Panossian says.
* Other states have adopted similar approaches as wildfire risk grows.
* Panossian says utilities are moving beyond "basic minimum maintenance" toward longer-term upgrades that account for future wildfire risks.
* Some California utilities are already experimenting with microgrids that can disconnect from the main grid and keep supplying power during outages as wildfire risk grows, Guikema says.
* But those investments "can be cost-prohibitive — and that's the challenge," he adds.
**Catch up quick:** Utilities have already learned costly lessons about wildfires.
* California utilities have spent billions on wildfire mitigation.
* PG&E emerged from bankruptcy after Camp Fire-related liabilities.
* Utilities across the West now conduct public safety power shutoffs. "They shut the power off because you'd rather have a short-term power outage than a catastrophic fire," Panossian says.
**What we're watching:** The grid is poised for a major expansion. The U.S. needs thousands of miles of new transmission to connect renewables, storage and data centers.
* Much of the U.S. grid also needs to be replaced. As utilities evaluate those upgrades, Panossian says, they're looking for opportunities to build wildfire resilience into those projects.
* Guikema says utility planning is, in many ways, a cost-risk trade-off. "How much are we willing to increase our utility rates to do undergrounding and things like that?" he says.
* In some cases, he says, regulators — not utilities — are limiting resilience investments because of cost concerns.
**The bottom line:** California has shown utilities what wildfire planning looks like. As wildfire risk spreads beyond the West, those lessons are shaping how the next generation of the U.S. grid is built.
**Go deeper:** Federal lab cuts could hamper fire forecasting efforts
*
*
*
Add Axios on Google
What to read next
*
*
*
*
*
*
Smarter, faster on what matters.
Explore Axios Newsletters
* About Axios
* Advertise with us
* Careers
* Contact us
* Newsletters
* Axios Live
* Axios HQ
* Privacy policy
* Terms of use
*
Axios Homepage
Axios Media Inc., 2026
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Source: Axios
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